Letters: Pilot Shortage
This Letter to the Editor appear in the Nov. 19 print edition of Transport Topics.
I just heard about the impending pilot shortage and the new regulatory requirement for 1,500 hours to qualify — five times the existing requirement.
This “overkill” change is being imposed on an industry that went more than a decade without a commercial fatality.
This is an industry where the unions and regulatory restrictions have bankrupted airline after airline.
It’s gotten to where baggage handlers are making more than entry-level pilots. Experts are saying, “Why would anyone in this environment want to aspire to become a pilot?”
Young people aren’t showing up. The average age of pilots is growing older and older.
Does this sound familiar? Why would anyone in their right mind want to become a doctor?
And, really, why would anyone want to be a professional truck driver?
I’ve said many times, there is something far worse than $6 to $8 per gallon fuel, and that is not being able to buy fuel at any price.
Think about . . .
• A shortage of pilots.
• A shortage of doctors.
• A shortage of professional drivers.
• A shortage of fuel.
• A shortage of refineries.
• A shortage of capital and credit.
• A shortage of jobs.
It may just require government intervention and nationalization to save ourselves from ourselves.
Just a thought . . .
David Owen
President
National Association of Small Trucking Companies
Gallatin, Tenn.