The past 25 years it has been talked about that a pilot shortage will come. It has been late in coming for a variety of reasons. The airline mergers in the 80's and 90's produced some consolidation, parking aircraft reducing pilots needed. The financial crash in 2008 also produced some shrinkage, decreasing numbers. With the downward spiral of airline profit, they got some relief with the increasing of the mandatory retirement age 5 years, 60 to 65. This caused hiring to almost come to a standstill.
Finally, the 5 years has past, the airline industry is making record profits, and the Airline Pilot Hiring Boom is happening. The major airlines are hiring pilots in numbers not seen since the 60's. Right now, the limiting factor is the hiring process itself. An airline can only hire so many due to training capacity. There is only so many classrooms, simulators and instructors. The airline are trying to expedite this, but this can only happen so fast.
Meanwhile, pilots are still reaching the magic age of 65. These numbers are in the thousands each year and no end for the next 15 to 18 years.
It is easy to see that this will be a huge number. The eye opening fact is there is not many pilots out there. The number of qualified pilots in the hiring Q is far less than the numbers needed. Even now, airlines are having a difficult time finding younger qualified applicants, mainly because people stopped perusing this as a career. The cost to get fully trained to start accumulating hours and experience versus the salaries you could make or expect didn't justify it as a career. But now, the salaries are back up where even at the lower levels of tenure, the money is very respectable.
The major airlines are hiring like crazy, many from the Regional Airlines. This leaving those regionals very short and starved for pilots. The progression of hiring in the industry is, the more experience you have, the better job you can land. The Majors are hiring Regional Pilots, Regionals are hiring lower time Air taxi/ Charter pilots and Flight Instructors. Except, there are very few pilots in this category. This is why it is such an exciting time for picking an "Airline Pilot" career path.
So, if you ever wanted to be an Airline Pilot, this is your opportunity. The hiring window is open for the foreseeable future, the compensation is back and the industry looks bright.
