Commercial Pilot Career is a sinking ship.

S

seaav8tor

New Member
Many sources of information are tainted. Many points of view are tainted. At the end of the day one of the best sources of data to draw your own conclusion about the value of investing your time and money into a pilot career is Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Look at the raw data over a period of time and determine a trend.

Here is a recent release:

http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2010/bts026_10/html/bts026_10.html

I knew the mainline jobs were shrinking and the regionals were growing but I had no idea the cancer had spread to the point that the total number of pilots employed are actually going DOWN! This is very sobering data.

Check out table 1

Note: Mainline jobs went from 50,201 in 2000 down to 33,994 in 2009!

The trend is not your friend.

At that rate someone just getting in the game now faces a daunting task trying to get a job in a rapidly shrinking market. If you will be happy with a regional job it's not as bleak but still sobering knowing your investment is being made into pilot career where the long term trend is a decrease in employment opportunities.
 
amazingly, there are pilot jobs outside the airlines. I shouldnt be telling everyone that, but luckily i dont think SJS spreads over to piston singles.
 
darth-vader-epic-fail.jpg



I agree with the above posters. There are plenty fulfilling jobs outside of the airlines. Besides don't forget all the old captains at the majors that will retire one day. Better pay outside of the US too if you want to venture out. Until we invent a teleportation device, Airplanes will be the go to choice for transportation.
 
Wait- if this career is a sinking ship... and I ride it all the way to the end..

... does that mean eventually my career will just go down on me?

Unexpected bonus! :D
 
jynxyjoe said:
Not all airline gigs are Shiny Jets
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But isnt that the ultimate goal of working for an airline, to make it to the shiny jets?

My point was, no one goes to great mistakes or even cape air to go and sweat their ass off flying a single engine cessna, despite the fact there is a great deal of money, (and respect) to be made doing so.

Ive said it before and ill say it again, theres a lot of people out there for the "lifestyle," not so many for the actually aviation part.
 
cmill said:
My point was, no one goes to great mistakes or even cape air to go and sweat their ass off flying a single engine cessna, despite the fact there is a great deal of money, (and respect) to be made doing so.
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How dare you put Great Lakes and Cape Air in the same category. :eek:

Burn him!
 
dasleben said:
How dare you put Great Lakes and Cape Air in the same category. :eek:

Burn him!
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I meant to differentiate them by the "even." Great lakes being the sucky one, and cape air being the good one, and thats part of it, theres people willing to make crap and live a crappy QOL for multi turbine time, and theres people who fly a piston and make a pretty damn good living. Who do you think earns my respect at the end of the day?
 
cmill said:
I meant to differentiate them by the "even." Great lakes being the sucky one, and cape air being the good one, and thats part of it, theres people willing to make crap and live a crappy QOL for multi turbine time, and theres people who fly a piston and make a pretty damn good living. Who do you think earns my respect at the end of the day?
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I getcha man, no worries. :D I'm with you all the way. I literally doubled my income going from a 50-seat RJ to a 9-seat 402. And, I have a hell of a lot more fun at this job than I ever did in an RJ.

Flying jets is still part of my eventual career goal, but for now it's a whole lot more fun aviating than following a flight director around. Hand-flying raw data approaches, using your knowledge and experience of local weather patterns, doing your own fuel planning, dealing with the mechanical quirkiness of old airplanes, etc...all great fun if you're the type of person who actually enjoys flying airplanes.
 
dasleben said:
I getcha man, no worries. :D I'm with you all the way. I literally doubled my income going from a 50-seat RJ to a 9-seat 402. And, I have a hell of a lot more fun at this job than I ever did in an RJ.

Flying jets is still part of my eventual career goal, but for now it's a whole lot more fun aviating than following a flight director around. Hand-flying raw data approaches, using your knowledge and experience of local weather patterns, doing your own fuel planning, dealing with the mechanical quirkiness of old airplanes, etc...all great fun if you're the type of person who actually enjoys flying airplanes.
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In the interest of full disclosure, i printed off the form for cape air, but never filled it out. Was much easier to call by old boss and get this job. :P
 
There are so many sea changes with this stuff that I wouldn't put my money on any seemingly solid trend.
 
Douglas said:
There are so many sea changes with this stuff that I wouldn't put my money on any seemingly solid trend.
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I have been watching the compensation trend since 1976. If you are a pilot then of course you wouldn't put your money on a trend or anything else for that matter. Because if you remain a pilot you will have no money. :drool:
 
cmill said:
amazingly, there are pilot jobs outside the airlines. I shouldnt be telling everyone that, but luckily i dont think SJS spreads over to piston singles.
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Yes, but if you were to add up all those non-airline jobs, it will come out to nowhere near 50,000.

Take all the 'small airplane' cargo and passenger outfits (Airnet, Ameriflight, and Cape Air and the like), that adds up to about 1,000 jobs max. Then add up all the fractional companies like NetJets, and FlexJet, thats another 1,000. All corporate gigs in the country add up to maybe 500. Plus all the 'career' flight instructor gigs which I'm guessing is about 200 or 300. Add all that up and you get about 3,000 jobs. Then double that number just in case my numbers are way off. That comes out to 6,000 jobs. Not even as many jobs as one of the large Airlines.
 
TwilightFan91 said:
Yes, but if you were to add up all those non-airline jobs, it will come out to nowhere near 50,000.

Take all the 'small airplane' cargo and passenger outfits (Airnet, Ameriflight, and Cape Air and the like), that adds up to about 1,000 jobs max. Then add up all the fractional companies like NetJets, and FlexJet, thats another 1,000. All corporate gigs in the country add up to maybe 500. Plus all the 'career' flight instructor gigs which I'm guessing is about 200 or 300. Add all that up and you get about 3,000 jobs. Then double that number just in case my numbers are way off. That comes out to 6,000 jobs. Not even as many jobs as one of the large Airlines.
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Really?

I'd bet there are 200 full time CFI's in the Los Angeles Basin alone. I know there is no less than 50 at the LGB airport alone.
 
TwilightFan91 said:
Yes, but if you were to add up all those non-airline jobs, it will come out to nowhere near 50,000.

Take all the 'small airplane' cargo and passenger outfits (Airnet, Ameriflight, and Cape Air and the like), that adds up to about 1,000 jobs max. Then add up all the fractional companies like NetJets, and FlexJet, thats another 1,000. All corporate gigs in the country add up to maybe 500. Plus all the 'career' flight instructor gigs which I'm guessing is about 200 or 300. Add all that up and you get about 3,000 jobs. Then double that number just in case my numbers are way off. That comes out to 6,000 jobs. Not even as many jobs as one of the large Airlines.
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LMAO!

I'm hammered and that even looks like nonsense to me...I believe he was quoting major airline pilot jobs anywho. Darn there's just too much that I want to say but I don't have the proper cognation to say it :beer:
 
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