Are there more regional pilots than major airline pilots?

Texguy said:
Seems like there's more competition than ever to get to the majors then.
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not just the major passenger airlines since there's a lot of competition at fractionals and big cargo like UPS, Fedex too.
 
Well, let's do some math, numbers taken from airlinepilotcentral.com. By these figures there are nearly 60,000 major/legacy/LCC airline pilots in the USA. I lumped small jet providers in with regionals despite several having the offical status of “majors”. I also put any significant cargo feeders in with the regionals, and threw UPS, FedEx, ABX, Atlas etc in with the Majors. For the regionals I come up with about 22,000 pilots. There’s almost a 3:1 ratio of majors to regionals.

Majors

ABX: 750
AirTran: 1200
Alaska: 1490
ATA: 800
Aloha: 350
American: 9265
Atlas: 630
CAT: 110
Continental: 4600
Delta: 6470
Evergreen: 220
FedEx: 4650
Frontier: 550
Hawaiian: 283
JetBlue: 1400
Kitty Hawk: 140
Midwest: 375
Northwest: 5400
Polar: 363
Spirit: 420
Southwest: 4900
Sun Country: 130
United: 6400
USAirways: 5100
USA 3000: 168
UPS: 2730

Total: 58,894

Regionals:

Air Wisconsin: 820
Airnet: 230
Ameriflight: 200
ASA: 1700
Chautauqua/Republic: 1350
Colgan: 350
Comair: 1900
Commutair: 150
Eagle: 3000
Expressjet: 2650
GoJet: 200?
Gulfstream: 500
Horizon: 715
Island Air: 100
Mesa: 1700
Mesaba: 950
Mountain Air: 300
Piedmont: 490
Pinnacle: 1200
PSA: 560
Skyway: 315
Skywest: 2150
TransStates: 700

Total: 22,230


Caveat: The cargo airlines probably skew the scale in favor of the majors. I think this is still a fair comparsion because cargo jobs flying heavy equipment are some of the most coveted jobs available today. I can see how someone like Doug, working for an airline with about 6500 mainline pilots and nearly 6000 pilots for regional affiliates would begin to think that regional pilots are outnumbering major airline pilots, but I don't think that's the case.
 
Well, the figures Alchemy posted show that it is obviously three times as competitive to get a regional airline job than a major airline job.

I don't see what all the "this industry is competetitive" fuss is about, then. Network schmetwork, I say!





(I am joking, before I am flamed right off of this website LOL!)
 
Nick said:
Well, the figures Alchemy posted show that it is obviously three times as competitive to get a regional airline job than a major airline job.

I don't see what all the "this industry is competetitive" fuss is about, then. Network schmetwork, I say!





(I am joking, before I am flamed right off of this website LOL!)
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I'm not trying to imply that "major" jobs are out there growing on trees, ripe for the picking. It just seems that there are considerably more "well paying", "major airline" jobs than there are regional jobs. The guys at the majors now have to retire eventually, and you have to assume that many of the regional pilots will ultimately be filling their shoes (along with a fair number of military pilots and pilots with non-airline backgrounds). I fly with guys every week that are leaving my regional for Continental, Southwest, Airtran, FedEx, and UPS. As unhealthy as it is right now, the airline industry is not going to evaporate. This job is never going to be what it was in the last half of the 20th century, but can still be a decent career IMHO.
 
Slightly different numbers from FLTops.com:



Major Airlines
65,227 Pilots Flying 4,401 Aircraft
7 of 15 Recruiting

National Airlines - Large Jet
6,279 Pilots Flying 404 Aircraft
13 of 17 Recruiting

National Airlines - Small Jet
16,946 Pilots Flying 1,765 Aircraft
11 of 11 Recruiting

Jet Scheduled
2,467 Pilots Flying 244 Aircraft
11 of 17 Recruiting

Jet Fractionals
3,883 Pilots Flying 713 Aircraft
6 of 6 Recruiting

Large Jet - Charter
658 Pilots Flying 49 Aircraft
5 of 10 Recruiting

Large Jet - Cargo
1,529 Pilots Flying 173 Aircraft
14 of 14 Recruiting

Prop Scheduled
3,020 Pilots Flying 566 Aircraft
20 of 25 Recruiting

Other Companies
1,814 Pilots Flying 567 Aircraft
36 of 42 Recruiting


There are a few foreign companies in "Other" category, but still 99% of these 101.832 guys/girls are flying for hire in the US.
 
Skyway has 315 pilots for only 22 aircraft? That doesn't seem right. We have 58 aircraft at Colgan and only ~345 pilots.
 
Texguy said:
Just curious. Thanks.
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"Regional" airlines hardly exist anymore. They're nearly all mainline carriers hiding behind a "regional" name tag so they can pay everyone who works for them slave wages.

When you fly into foreign countries (Mexico, Canada, etc.) and cover the U.S. coast to coast you are NOT a f****ing regional airline.

But to answer your question, I'd guess there are. :sarcasm: :D
 
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