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Kit Darby up to it again

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radarlove

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Posts
677
This is a kind of old story, but it cracked me up. Old Kit is at it again, talking about how retirements are going to drive up major airline hiring. I remember when he was going on about TWA retirements and how that was going to boost hiring for a long time, uh huh, right...




Searching for a career was wearing on college student Emily Nankivell until she discovered becoming an airline pilot was within reach.

She plans to attend a new flight school opening Monday at Sinclair Community College in Dayton to be operated with Delta Air Lines. More flight schools are opening or expanding and pilot recruiting has increased because of the growth of regional airlines and looming retirements of Vietnam-era pilots.

"The idea of being a pilot came up, but it seemed too impractical," said Nankivell, 20, of suburban Kettering. "When I found out that Delta was going in with Sinclair, that really affirmed my decision. This is a major airline. I could probably get a job with them."

The Dayton school will be the fourth college-affiliated program operated by Delta Connection Academy, the airline's pilot-training subsidiary.

Pan Am International Flight Academy in Orlando, Fla., doubled its number of flight schools last year by acquiring two more - in Livermore, Calif., and Beaver Falls, Pa.

"We're very much aware of the hiring needs of the regionals. That's whom we're targeting with our graduates," Vice President Bob Crook said. "We're constantly expanding our fleet of aircraft, and we're hiring instructors continuously."

Other airlines and pilot-training companies have added classrooms and more flight simulators.

Delta's Dayton flight school graduates are guaranteed job interviews with the airline's regional affiliates, Delta Connection and American Eagle, which have hired 1,000 pilots this year, said Susan Burrell, president of the Delta academy.

"The regional jet industry continues to expand at a very fast pace, creating an enormous pilot void for the airlines to fill," Burrell said.

The number of jet aircraft used by regional commuter airlines jumped from 240 in 1998 to 1,321 in 2003, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. And the FAA forecasts that the number will continue to rise steadily, hitting 3,222 by 2015.

The sluggish economy has forced airlines to turn to smaller jets used by regional airlines that are easier to fill with passengers and less expensive to operate for shorter routes.

"You're trying to size the tool, the airplane, to the size of the market," said Kit Darby, president of Atlanta-based Air Inc., a career information service for airline pilots. "RJs are saving the bacon right now. They've just popped up like mushrooms."

Many of the approximately 9,400 airline pilots laid off as a result of cutbacks after the 2001 terrorist attacks and competition from low-cost airlines don't want to transfer to regional airlines, Darby said.

Regional pilots work longer hours and may make only about one-third of the pay for pilots of major airlines.

But there is no shortage of candidates because younger pilots see regional operations as a way to gain experience.

Darby estimates there will be openings for 10,000 pilots this year, well above the long-term average. Many of those openings will be because a large number of pilots are approaching retirement age, he said.

About 1,300 of the 59,000 pilots for major U.S. airlines are expected to retire this year, Darby said. That number will continue to increase annually, reaching about 2,300 in 2007, he said.

Many of those approaching retirement are military pilots who served in the Vietnam War, said Severin Borenstein, professor of business economics at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley.

"The airlines recognize that they are going to see substantial retirements and need to prepare for that," he said.

The flight school at the University of North Dakota is among the largest of the 190-plus aviation programs at colleges. Fall 2003 enrollment was 1,776, up from about 1,000 students six years ago.

"For our graduates, there has been a significant amount of hiring activity," aviation department chairman Kent Lovelace said. "In the last eight months, it's really taken off."l
 
I really do not know what to say...

Although I would never try to talk anyone out of becoming a pilot, a student pilot must be armed with all the facts. If one's goal is to fly heavy metal across a pond, have 18 days off/month, make $200000/yr be realistic. Those jobs are very few and far between. Yes there will be thousands of retirements coming up. I hope these schools are letting students know that there may be a new retirement age by the time they graduate. They will also be in competition with the 15000+ regional, military, corporate, cargo, LCC, etc pilots applying for those jobs. Yeah...right.
 
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Kit who?

Why do you need to pay that goof? The net is full of more up to date info than Air Inc. provides. It is a waste of money. There are tons of guys and gals on the net who will help you out if you only ask. I always pass along job info when I get it. Of course after I apply to the good ones. LOL
 
radarlove said:
"We're very much aware of the hiring needs of the regionals. That's whom we're targeting with our graduates," Vice President Bob Crook said. "We're constantly expanding our fleet of aircraft, and we're hiring instructors continuously."

Did anyone catch that?
 
She thinks she can get hired by Delta because they run the program? I like how they talk of all the airline growth but fail to mention it's mostly at the Regional level.
 
Captain Overs said:
She thinks she can get hired by Delta because they run the program? I like how they talk of all the airline growth but fail to mention it's mostly at the Regional level.

The press I've been reading lately says even that is over.

I suspect that airlines about to enter/already in bankruptcy sent a LOT of flying to the regionals. Now that the you-know-what has hit the fan, they're going to cut back on all high-cost flying, whether it be through salary reductions or RJ reductions. Per seat-mile RJ costs are pretty high relative to LCCs.

I wonder if the recent hiring boom at the regionals is due to the (temporary) financial straights of the majors and has already gone past its peak.

Rumors of furloughs at Comair, Mesaba, etc. That doesn't bode well for the 600 hour pilot.
 
I'll tell you how up-to-date KD's information is - at the DCA job fair (you know - the one with the broken air conditioning, and running 45 min behind schedule) they handed out the latest AIR, Inc. newsletter and it listed Planet Airways as hiring; that dumbass had no idea that Planet went OUT OF BUSINESS in the fukking SRING of this past year!!

Kit darby is a fraud.
 
satpak77 said:
I think those days are over guys


Just had a family memeber Retire from FedEx. Senior Capt. his last year he made 360K! It's over for most of us, but there are a few out there still making some coin.
 
holdon said:
Just had a family memeber Retire from FedEx. Senior Capt. his last year he made 360K! It's over for most of us, but there are a few out there still making some coin.

unless you can time transport yourself into "FedEx Senior Captain" status right now, those days are over

don't kid yourself
 

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