American Airlines Regional Pilots Get Big Pay Bump
Airlines have been frantically looking to hire new pilots since last year as travel demand began to bounce back. But even with all the new hires, there’s a continuing shortage of pilots as more and more people travel.
Many airlines encouraged pilots to take early retirement in 2020, as planes were mostly grounded due to travel bans around the world. Now that pilots are needed, there aren’t many of them available. So it makes sense that airlines are paying more to recruit, or keep their prized assets.
With that in mind, two American Airlines’ subsidiary regional carriers are dramatically increasing their pay for pilots. Piedmont Airlines and Envoy Air are giving pilots a 50% pay bump, according to NBC News, as they are losing an average of 25 pilots a month. Large commercial airlines are luring these pilots away with better pay and benefits.
The shortages have resulted in huge flight cancellations from all airlines, especially on busy weekends. In fact, American recently had to park 100 of its regional jets attributing it to a supply and demand imbalance.
Piedmont plans to raise wages for first officers from $51 an hour to $90 an hour through August of 2024, while first-year captains will see bumps to $146 an hour from $78 an hour.
“Attrition of the regional pilots, particularly the captains, has really spiked to the point where we’re not able to put our fleet in the air,” Piedmont CEO Eric Morgan told CNBC. He approached the pilots union to offer the temporary pay increase, separate from normal contract negotiations.
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[…] of the four cities that are losing service. The airline said it is taking other steps, including boosting regional pilot pay rates, to make its operation more reliable going […]
Who is doing the math around here? The dollar amounts provided are a lot higher than a 50% raise.
Now, with higher pay, perhaps they can attract new pilots to restore the routes they’ve suspended (due to the pilot shortage).