Becoming a Pilot & Airline Pilot Career FAQs

Being a "Commercial" pilot is more than just flying for an airline. A pilot must have a Commercial pilot certificate to get a job flying any size aircraft, with any type of business for hire or compensation. The minimum amount of flight time one must have to take the FAA Commercial Pilot flight test is 250 hours, unless you do your training via "Part 141" school then it's 190 hours.

The major airlines minimum pilot requirements, aka "minimums"/"mins", are around 2,500 hours and the regional carriers mins are generally a commercial pilot certificate with 1,000 hours. In August 2013 a mandatory minimum of 1,500 hours and an Airline Transport pilot certificate will take efffect. However, "competitive minimums", or what the average flight times of their new hires are, may be significantly above the minimums required to apply.  As of early 2011, there are now some regionals and majors who are recruiting and hiring. A good sign for pilot career movement which will only accelerate into the end of 2013 as those pilots who extended their career by 5 years when the mandatory retirement age was changed from 60 to 65 will be leaving.

Additionally, the long term growth for the career over the next 20 years looks very good. At the 2011 36th Annual FAA Aviation Forecast conference these numbers were projected:

• Total mainline air carrier and regional Revenue Passenger Miles/RPMs are forecast to increase from 786.7B in 2010 to 1.71T in 2031, an average annual rate of 3.8%.
• U.S. mainline air carrier passenger jet fleet increases from 3,713 aircraft in 2010 to 5,888 aircraft in 2031, an average annual increase of 2.2%. The fleet is projected to shrink by 0.5% in 2011 (19 aircraft), with most of the decrease attributed to the grounding of less fuel-efficient aircraft.
• The regional carrier passenger aircraft fleet increases from 2,577 aircraft in 2010 to 3,384 aircraft in 2031, an average annual increase of 1.3%. The fleet is projected to grow by 1.2% in 2011 (31 aircraft).
• Regional jets increase from 1,771 aircraft in 2010 to 2,764 aircraft in 2031, an annual increase of 2.1%. All of the increase is attributed to jet aircraft in the 70-90-seat category.

However, a factor that could impact those figures is the potential lack of pilots to fly the aircraft and flights predicted in this growth. The 2011 FAA Aviation Forecast is predicting commercial air traffic will more than double in the next 20 years, yet about 64% fewer Private Pilot certificates were issued in 2010 than in 1990! There are fewer and fewer pilots in the USA, dwindling the pool of potential airline pilots substantially. A 70-80% student dropout rate is a key factor in that decline. This could finally trigger the "looming pilot shortage" that some in the industry predict every decade or so.

Getting Your Flight Experience

Obviously a pilot with a brand new commercial certificate does not meet any airlines hiring minimums. How do they get the flight time required? New commercial pilots can fly several kinds of jobs that will enable them to build up their flight experience to the airline minimums. The typical civilian career path is a time building job to get to a regional carrier, then after several years there they apply with a major carrier. Flying cargo is an option too, however most small cargo operators like Fed Ex feeder or Ameriflight minimums are slightly higher than the regional airlines. Legally, pilots must have 1,200 hours to fly freight for small cargo 'FAR Part 135 operators' (unless they are a VFR operator only and do not fly in clouds- a rarity). Large freight operators like UPS or Fed Ex are considered 'FAR Part 121' (just like the passenger airlines) and their hiring minimums are on par with the major airlines. Their competitive hiring mins are far and beyond their published mins to apply, and like major airline pilot positions, jobs at these companies are very sought after.

"Time building jobs" are:

Banner towing
Traffic watch
Skydive pilot
Pipeline patrol
Glider towing
Fish spotting
Flight Instruction (with the additional CFI certificate)

How do you find such jobs?

An aspiring commercial pilot would do well to network in the aviation community as they earned their ratings. Many employers will hire a face they know over a faceless resume. Chatting up pilots already doing these sorts of jobs provides a personal contact for the future. Banner tow, skydive and glider operators can be found in the phone book or online. This site provide some good advice for prospective skydive pilots- DiverDriver.com. Call your local radio station and ask for the contact information for their traffic watch operator. Seek such operators out with resume in hand. Even if they aren't hiring at the moment, you will be a familiar face if you check back every month or so and they may consider you at a future date. Often the flight school where a pilot does their flight training may hire them to teach for their school when they earn their Certified Flight Instructor/"CFI". (You need this additional rating to be able to teach student pilots.) This link also provides some ideas for building flight time. Once a pilot builds up the additional hours above the 250 they had when they got their commercial license and meet regional hiring mins, they can then start to apply.

To read about airline specific interview experiences, and what the applicants flight times were, visit this page-
AviationInterviews.com


Back in 2003, 68% of airline pilots hired were from a civilian background according to Aviation Information Resources (aka AIR, Inc). This is a trend that will remain steady or increase over the next few years as fewer military pilots are available compared to decades past and the pool of qualified civilian pilots increases.

Additionally, "The age range for civilian new-hires at the major airlines spans from 27 to 42 years-old, with the average age being 34.6 years and 5,419 total hours and 40.0 years and 3,205 total hours for pilots with a military background. Of those civilian pilots interviewed at the majors, 30% have corrected vision, 90% have a four year degree or higher, 90% have an ATP and 80% an FE written.", according to Kit Darby, former United Airlines Captain and president of Darby Aviation Consulting.

Here is a .pdf file link on the hiring trends and statistics on the US airline industry, forcasted by Mr. Darby at the 33rd FAA Aviation Forecast Conference in March of 2008. While the recent recession impacted his forcasted hiring numbers immediately following 2008, it has a lot of other data that is very useful and the numbers in the future are now projected to be quite strong based on the 36th Annual Forecast.

The National Transportation Safety Board held a 3 day symposium in May of 2010 on 'Professionalism in Aviation'. Topics on the agenda were major and regional hiring, future pilot training and the topic of a pilot shortage over the next decade. The panelists were leaders from across in the industry. Some interesting figures presented by Ms. Judy Tarver of FltOps.com were that over the next decade, the FAA is forecasting the major airlines will need 42,000+ pilots. That is quite a figure considering that in 2010 there are only about 54,000 total active airline pilots, 18,700 of which are regional pilots, flying today. (Compare that to the 12,500 total active military pilots.) Between 2010-2025 the FAA forecasts 54,300 aircraft will be added to U.S. airline fleet and pilot attrition will be 139,000. If these projections hold true, such a 'pilot shortage' will be a serious concern for our transportation industry in the years to come.

A 25 page document on this topic by the AirLine Pilots Association is also worth a read. Get the .pdf - Producing a Professional Airline Pilot: Candidate Screening, Hiring, Training & Mentoring