Pilot Shortage

CNBC: Close to half of United’s roughly 12,500 pilots will retire over the next 10 years, the airline estimates, and it expects to need to hire 10,000 over that period to keep pace with growth. Boeing has estimates that airlines will need 645,000 pilots from 2019 through 2038, with 212,000 in North America alone.

Airlines around the world are fretting about who will fly their planes in the future and are ramping up recruiting efforts. Delta Air Lines last year launched a program that invited its non-pilot employees to take unpaid leave to go to flight school and conditional job offers for college students as ranks of pilots thin due to the federally-mandated retirement age of 65.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/united-airlines-ramps-up-recruitment-to-hire-10000-pilots-over-next-decade.html