The pilot shortage is REAL, and we are beginning to feel the consequences of it. This is a subject I have spoken much about.
There several factors, but the biggest, by far, has been the economic destruction of the American Middle Class, and the loss of decent paying jobs for the masses. The decline in the pilot population closely follows the decline in real family incomes from around 1980 onward.
Flying, or learning to fly, has never been cheap. In high school, I had to work 25 hours to afford one hour of flight training.
Add in another factor, that being the decline of eligible people in the population.
Stuffing ADD drugs and psychotropics into kids that act out in school, instead of disciplining them is a big part. As is widespread drug usage, and arrests, will almost immediately disqualify you from most flying jobs, and the medical process.
There has also been a severe pilot PAY SHORTAGE for at least two decades, that plays a big part of this. Lots of kids with the desire, could not justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for commercial flight training, only to make $18k flying for a regional to build time for the majors, while living like a pauper.
Another thing is regulation driving costs through the ceiling.
In 1972, a brand new Cessna 172, the workhorse of training and general aviation, cost roughly 2 1/2 years average salary to buy. Today that same, almost exact airplane, costs 9-10 years of the average salary to buy.
Much of that cost is regulatory and liability.
There is no one fix for this, a lot of things have to happen in the right order for it to happen.
If there aren’t enough pilots why isn’t that reflected in the pay scale?
we are losing the SOLID foundation of young people...
too many mamby pamby school courses, too many drugs, too many put downs of the values of a strong and robust society...hard work, obedience to parents, following the rules..
being a valedictorian used to mean something...as in, you took the difficult courses and succeeded...
now everything has been dumb downed..
kids that would have worked hard to become doctors now just slid into liberal arts and law school....