Aviation News

Amid pilot shortage, Colorado university gets FAA’s OK for aviation students’ earlier career takeoff

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As air travel continues to soar from the lows early in the pandemic, airlines that laid off pilots or offered early retirement are now trying to rehire or recruit new staff. Metropolitan State University of Denver hopes to help rebuild the bench, thanks to new federal authorization intended to get graduates in the pilot’s seat more quickly.

Just before the current semester, the university was authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to offer students who want to be pilots the opportunity to earn a restricted airline transport pilot certificate. That means a person will need 1,000 hours of flying time rather than 1,500 hours to be a first officer, or copilot.

“This equates to about a year to year and a half time savings for the students to get into the airlines,” said Chad Kendall, an associate professor in MSU Denver’s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science.

“Having a 500-hour reduction allows students to get that date of hire sooner, get into the pipeline,” Kendall added. “In the airline world, the date of hire and your seniority mean everything in the sense of your pay and your upgrade time to be a captain.”

Having more people in the pilot pipeline also benefits the airlines, Kendall said. “Flights are canceling because of staffing issues. United Airlines announced a reduction in their regional airline flights because regional airlines are having trouble staffing pilots.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines were facing a pilot shortage as global air travel increased, more pilots retired and the required hours of flight training were significantly boosted.

“We had a very severe shortage. The pandemic hit and now we’ve got an even worse shortage,” said Jeff Forrest, a professor and chairman of the university’s aviation and aerospace science department.

“That’s why you see the big three airlines announcing that by the end of next year, they need well over a thousand pilots each,” said Kendall, referring to United, Delta and American airlines.

When air travel plunged early in the pandemic, thousands of pilots retired or were laid off. Since then, traffic has taken off, nearing pre-pandemic levels over the Thanksgiving holiday. Denver International Airport reported that 425,000 travelers passed through security checkpoints Nov. 22-28, just 7% lower than the same week in 2019.

“I think the wild card in all that is the variants of the virus and what’s in the future,” Forrest said.

Boeing expects the demand for pilots to remain sky high. The aerospace company said in a recent report that an estimated 612,000 new pilots will be needed worldwide over the next two decades.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Declan Kreck, an aviation student at Metropolitan State University of Denver, fills out paperwork before his flight training begins at McAir Aviation in Broomfield on Dec. 1, 2021.

Earning a captain’s wings

Declan Kreck, a sophomore at MSU Denver, wants to be a pilot. He flies Mondays and Wednesdays as part of his training, putting in about 2 and a half hours a week.

“It isn’t as much as I’d hoped, but with school and work you kind of have to fly when you can,” said Kreck.

The reduction from 1,500 to 1,000 hours of flying needed could cut as much as two years off the wait time fly for the airlines, Kreck said. “Five hundred hours less is massive.”

Students who earn the restrictive airline pilot transport certificate can move into the co-pilot’s chair and aim to earn their captain’s wings after reaching 1,500 hours in the air. Kreck said people typically work as flight instructors while building toward the goal.

“This allows you to move to the airlines instead of working at a lower salary position as a flight instructor,” Kreck said.

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