Delta, United talk about pilot shortages — a reason behind delayed, canceled flights — at Oshkosh's EAA AirVenture
OSHKOSH - While an estimated 8,000 planes flew in to the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture convention this week in Oshkosh, across the nation it appears that the only infallible way to fly somewhere is to be your own pilot.
In 2020, 20% of U.S. pilots were unemployed due to the crash in air travel during the pandemic, according to The 2021 Pilot Survey.
Airlines operated 4.7 million domestic passenger flights in the full year 2020, a 41% drop from flights in 2019, according to the Bureau of Transportation. As a result, airlines weren't making enough money to cover their expenses.
Some airlines offered early retirement packages to their employees in efforts to reduce expenses. Other pilots were fired or laid off.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of airplane pilots and engineers has decreased by nearly 4% over the past two years.
Wisconsin pilots were, on average, among the lowest paid in the nation in May 2021, according to the BLS. The state also had the lowest rates of employment for pilots, copilots and engineers.
More: Team USA Delta Airbus pilot Sheila Baldwin, of small-town Wisconsin, flies at EAA AirVenture
Now that people are becoming more comfortable with flying and traveling, the aviation industry is struggling to find enough pilots to fly the flights they need to keep up with the demand.
Commercial pilots say they've been pushed to their limits
The lack of pilots and engineers has been a contributing factor to the issues travelers have faced, especially during the busy summer months.
American Airlines has been among those most affected by the shortage. Since the start of June, it canceled over 2,000 international and domestic flights.
Meanwhile pilots have begun to protest and in some cases strike over work conditions that include disrupted schedules, low wages and the inability to get enough rest to safely do their jobs.
Delta pilots have been protesting since May in many major cities; they say they're overworked and exhausted.
"There was already a pilot shortage happening before (the COVID-19 pandemic)," Kelvin Mason, general manager for Pilot Pathways, a pilot training program, for Delta, said during AirVenture. "What happened with COVID, all the airlines went through so much financial turmoil in that 12- to 18-month period that a lot of us went into survival mode. (Delta) offered retirement packages to our employees, to try to limit the size of the operation and limit our costs."
Mason said that at one point during the pandemic Delta was losing over $100,000 a day.
As pilots accepted the retirement packages, Delta's workforce was significantly reduced, leaving it, like the other airlines, unprepared for the rapid return of leisure travel.
Last month, the Delta Master Executive Council released a statement that said by fall Delta pilots will have worked more overtime this year than in 2018 and 2019 combined.
"Travel demand came back faster than anybody anticipated," Mason said. "All of the airlines have been scrambling to fill all of our openings. The industry has been struggling to ramp up as quickly as travel demand has come back."
Here's a snapshot of the turmoil in air travel: According to Flight Aware, over 6,700 flights within, into or leaving out of the county, were delayed on Wednesday. Over 2,800 flights were canceled across the country.
Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport had 33 delays and five flight cancellations. Appleton International Airport had five delays, but no cancellations.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Delta pilots, posted a letter to Delta customers empathizing with them about their many delayed and canceled flights. The union accused Delta of scheduling more flights than available pilots, resulting in pilots working overtime.
"Airline and airport staffing shortages have also led to a slow reintroduction of airline routes to the schedule," said Madison Blancaflor, the content operations editor for The Points Guy. "Somewhere between 80 to 90% of routes are back from pre-pandemic levels, but we’re not fully recovered, yet. You’re looking at the same number of passengers from 2019 trying to book a fewer number of available airlines seats."
Still, Blancaflor said, airlines aren't seeing much resistance from customers. Travelers are still booking trips, even at higher prices, so airlines continue to raise them.
More pilots key to better, more reliable air service
Some airlines decided to cut back on their operations in an effort to relieve the pressure. Alaska Airlines cut down on capacity and SkyWest announced plans to stop service to at least 29 smaller cities, including Eau Claire — though the U.S. Transportation Department barred SkyWest from doing so until replacement carriers can be found under the governments subsidy program, according to Reuters.
Delta announced plans in May to cancel around 100 flights a day in July and August to prevent major travel disruptions this summer.
Meanwhile, airlines are looking for smarter and more competitive ways to recruit more employees.
One of the ways Delta is doing this is by dropping the requirement for pilots to have a four-year degree. Mason said one of the reasons for the change was an attempt to be competitive with other airlines.
"Most of the other airlines have already removed their requirement or never had one in the first place, so we were trying to be competitive with other airlines because we're already in the same boat of trying to hire thousands of pilots," Mason said.
Another reason was the recognition that not everyone is able to or wants to pursue college degrees.
"We wanted to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to pursue this career," Mason said. "It allowed us to expand our candidate pool and we've been happy with the results so far."
Delta offers a pilot career pathway program called the Propel Program that allows students at Delta's partnered universities, as well as the company's internal employees, to have the opportunity to become a pilot. Mason said Delta was the first major airline to have a pathway program like Propel.
United has the United Aviate Academy, based out of Goodyear, Arizona, which helps students obtain their private pilot license in as little as two months. Once a student completes the United Aviate Academy they can then transition to the Aviate program, which will allow them to gain experience as a certified flight instructor and get the hours needed to be a certified pilot.
Those who continue on past the Aviate program can move toward possibly becoming a pilot for United.
The goal is to train over 5,000 pilots within the next decade who will be guaranteed a job at United once they complete the Aviate program, as stated by the CEO of United, Scott Kirby, on the company's website.
United plans for at least half of those 5,000 pilots to be women or people of color. For the United Aviate Academy, it is important to open up opportunities to for minorities in the aviation field.
"Diversity is important because we need to reflect the people that we serve," said Daryll Wyrick, manager of Academy services, who also attended AirVenture. "It's important for someone to be able to see what's possible and I always say there's power in relatability."
Having a broader reach on recruitment will bring in more students to the program.
"We're doing everything we can to attract those that have not even thought of it, to see the vision and the path," said Mary Ann Schaffer, United's chief pilot, after presenting a forum on the academy at AirVenture.
In total, United expects to hire more than 10,000 pilots over the next decade, the website states, and the United Aviate Program will aid in reaching that goal.
The program offers free private pilot training, which usually costs about $17,750. United and Chase partnered to offer $2.4 million in financial aid to those in the program that qualify, and some participants can even receive full rides.
"We opened the academy with our first class in December of last year so those pilots are between three to five years from being ready and experienced to the point of coming to United Airlines and the existing pathway," Schaffer said. "Mandatory pilot retirement is age 65. Our charts show that we are going to retire over 700 pilots in the year 2028. So we've got the time, we can build the pipeline that we need to before we hit our peak retirement."
Thirteen percent of the nations pilots will reach retirement age within the next five years, according to the Regional Airline Association.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is pushing a bill that could help ease the shortage. The Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act would raise the federally mandated retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67, but the long-term solution is to attract younger adults to the aviation industry and train them to fly.
Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Delta, United talk pilot shortages at EAA AirVenture
