Pilot Hiring around 2025

austinrc

austinrc

Well-Known Member
Hi all-

High school student here. I am wondering what you all think the pilot hiring outlook looks like.

I will graduate high school in 2021. I intend to do a 4-year aviation degree program (yes, I know what some of you think of those, and yes not an aviation college just an aviation degree). That puts me at 2025 graduation from college. With an R-ATP needing 1,000 hours, I'm going to guess it would be ~2027 when I would reach airline time.

My question is, what do you all think about hiring 8 years from now? I am concerned that I will land on the back end of the hiring wave and be stuck at a regional for a long time. Is this a valid concern?

Thanks.
 
Check out this thread and the table @JDean3204 put together.
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Retirement Table through 2032

About a week ago I posted a hand written table of the retirements, it was a little messy and was brought to my attention that I used Delta numbers twice instead of United's numbers.. (whoops!) Had to fix that so I decided to make an excel spread sheet instead of another hand written table. It...
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You might be on the back end, who knows what the growth will look like. 10 years is a long horizon in aviation. For perspective, 10 years ago I was just graduating high school and Colgan 3407 just crashed. Regionals weren't really hiring, and my instructors were beyond excited to get to interview at Expressjet or Air Wisconsin, and were practicing NDB approaches and IFR procedures in the sim for hours to prepare. Now they're throwing money at anyone that bothers showing up to class. Keep plugging away, start lessons if you can afford it now to see if you're really into it. You're ahead of the curve by being on JC at your age
 
If you eventually want to make good money flying airplanes, you will. You will go through hard times as well, so just know it won’t be an easy road but most likely one worth it if you truly enjoy flying. Have you taken a flight lesson yet?

Being a teenager, enjoy those years. Good on you for looking ahead but don’t worry too much, things will work out. If you’re on the back end of the wave, who cares, at least you caught the wave. Just be flexible and have a good attitude and you will have a great career! Have fun in High School and College, just not too much fun where you end up with a mark or two on your record. If not you may be stuck with me flying turboprops!
 
You have the rest of your life to worry about things you cannot control. Enjoy your youth - fly for fun, the rest will all fall into place.

Pursue your passion, keep your head on straight, and worry about the logistics of this career when the time comes. Don’t stress over it now. 8-10 years is a long time to predict. Meteorologists can’t even get it right 24 hours in advance. And they still get paid.
 
Absolutely what Doug said.

Don’t overthink it. Some years may require more preparation than others. That’ll be the only difference when you break in to the industry.
 
I would tell what you should expect in eight years, only problem is, I cannot even settle on what I want to eat for breakfast tomorrow morning. Hmm yes, Derg said it best and simply put, don't overthink it.
 
Since you have the benefit of time, I would recommend getting a job and paying for some lessons. You may even be able to knock out your PPL prior to your high school graduation. There are even some scholarships that you can apply for to pay for flight lessons.

I am a little jaded with the flying degree thing because that is something that I thought I wanted to do but was unable to pursue it. I ended up going to a 4 year school to pursue a degree in civil engineering while flying on the side. Things worked out great for me but like others have said if you want to fly planes go fly planes. Enjoy the journey.
 
And for the love of all that’s right in the world, please get a degree and finish it. Don’t fall prey to the regional recruiters saying “oh just finish it online, drop out now!” or the “My mother’s cousins uncles best friends neighbors bartenders barber’s brother is a 747 captain and says college is stupid”
 
Have you ever heard the sayin’ “wanna make God laugh....make plans”?

Nobody can predict the future...especially 8 yrs out. Life just isn’t that cut and dry. Waaaay too many variables. Go to college, get a degree (any degree), but probably something you can fall back on if the aviation thing doesn’t work out. Make sure you have no underlining issues that would prevent you from getting and maintaining a class 1 medical.

Here’s the master plan.....Get your ratings, build hours, apply to airlines. Easy right? In theory, yes. The reality may be much more complicated. Aviation is fickle. Always has been, always will be. Good luck!
 
DE727UPS said:
I'd have a hard time endorsing an aviation degree just to save a year on the seniority list. I'm still one that would suggest a degree in a second area of interest as a fall back or second career.
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I only quoted to emphasize this. Heed these words of wisdom he wrote.
 
Derg said:
And for the love of all that’s right in the world, please get a degree and finish it. Don’t fall prey to the regional recruiters saying “oh just finish it online, drop out now!” or the “My mother’s cousins uncles best friends neighbors bartenders barber’s brother is a 747 captain and says college is stupid”
Click to expand...

Well, college has become stupid now but it's not for the reason that 747 captain thinks. I mean in terms of everyone doing it just to do it because they're told to or expected to, ridiculous uncontrolled rising tuition, ridiculous amounts of government lending, etc.
 
Derg said:
And for the love of all that’s right in the world, please get a degree and finish it. Don’t fall prey to the regional recruiters saying “oh just finish it online, drop out now!” or the “My mother’s cousins uncles best friends neighbors bartenders barber’s brother is a 747 captain and says college is stupid”
Click to expand...
They will literally say whatever they can in order to put a body into a class. Including this.
 
Unless the OP plans on using his back up degree, I say go the cheapest route possible. If that’s an online degree from WGU or Excelsior, both are accredited. Going for that full college, find yourself and expand your horizon experience is so expensive now you will be regretting it once the payments start. Not saying going to a brick and mortar school is unwise, just unwise if you already have a plan and the degree isn’t the leading edge of it.

My opinion, go to an FBO once you graduate and take courses online. It doesn’t have to be an aviation degree, business or liberal arts works fine and it will check the same box down the road. But if you want that 4 year memory bank then just be prepared to pay for it along with the 60-70k you’ll rack up in ratings. After that if you end up on the tail end of a wave during a recession, have fun paying back all that debt on regional FO pay while trying to start a life. Many on here have had that exact same situation through the lost decade.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Well, college has become stupid now but it's not for the reason that 747 captain thinks. I mean in terms of everyone doing it just to do it because they're told to or expected to, ridiculous uncontrolled rising tuition, ridiculous amounts of government lending, etc.
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People were saying this when we went to college. They were wrong then, and they're wrong now.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Well, college has become stupid now but it's not for the reason that 747 captain thinks. I mean in terms of everyone doing it just to do it because they're told to or expected to, ridiculous uncontrolled rising tuition, ridiculous amounts of government lending, etc.
Click to expand...

Please keep the editorial comments off this topic. The kid needs to go to college.
 
JDean3204 said:
Unless the OP plans on using his back up degree, I say go the cheapest route possible. If that’s an online degree from WGU or Excelsior, both are accredited. Going for that full college, find yourself and expand your horizon experience is so expensive now you will be regretting it once the payments start. Not saying going to a brick and mortar school is unwise, just unwise if you already have a plan and the degree isn’t the leading edge of it.
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Yeah. World needs more liberal arts majors. :(
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. I understand many of you think the aviation degree is a bad idea, but for me its what I am motivated to study. If I need a backup plan later in life, I will just figure it out then. I know it sounds flippant, but I am willing to face the consequences if it goes south.

Thanks for the advice about not worrying about the future as well.
 
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