Airlines’ Hiring Push Is About To Make Military Pilot Shortage A Lot Worse

As someone who operates in both industries, we're going to see this worsen on both sides. Not to bring up the generational gap, but that's where I think the problem lies. Today's potential aviation recruits don't have the patience to put in the work to get a commercial ticket, then slog in the CFI trenches to get 1500 TT until they are eligible to work at a regional for $28k a year. They aren't stupid. They can do a CBA and see that the ROI isn't there.

As far as the military side is concerned, you don't have the generational commitment that previously existed. If the economy is strong, the military is going to suffer. You can see evidence of this in Australia. So, this lack of people must necessarily contribute to the lack of IP's, etc., that has to come from the farm-team of line pilots that, as we can all agree, is rapidly dwindling.

So, what's that mean? Do we lower standards? I think we can all agree that answer is a resounding "no". However, the mission must get done. So that means the people that are currently in and will get in to military aviation are going to work that much harder to keep the boxes and boots moving.