This video was made possible by Brilliant. Learn with Brilliant for 20% off by being
one of the first 200 to sign up at Brilliant.org/Wendover. For the longest while airlines treated pilots
as a renewable resource. It was long considered one of the best jobs
one could have—to make good money flying around the world in comfort—but as aviation
has become more commonplace the job of pilot has too become more and more just like any
other job. While in the 50s the job garnered the same
respect and pay as a doctor, entering the industry today earns you not much more than
you’d make at a fast food restaurant. Before a pilot can even perform their first
take-off with passengers in the back they have to get licensed. Most top airline jobs require or strongly
favor those with a college diploma so for those that want to go all the way in the field
they have to start by getting a degree. The cost of that averages $133,000 in the
US and then every aspiring commercial pilot first needs to get a private pilots license
which requires 35 hours of flight-time. These first bits of flight time, which are
with an instructor, typically cost about $140 an hour or $4,900 total. You also have to take classes which have their
own fees so getting a private pilots license usually costs about $8,000 all in. To start actually making money as a pilot,
though, you need 15 additional hours of instruction for an instrument rating costing $900 and
an additional 215 hours of flight time costing $23,500. There are also tons of other smaller costs
for books and housing and transportation and other things which bring the total cost of
pilots training to at least $80,000. Having done all that, having spent $213,000
on education so far, one finally receives a commercial pilots license but still, at
that point, one can’t work for most airlines. To get an Airline Transport Pilot License,
the one needed to work for large commercial airlines by the likes of Delta or KLM or Cathay
Pacific, one needs, with some exceptions, 1,500 flight hours. That would cost an additional $136,000 in
rental fees alone if one were to pay for the flight time themselves so pilots normally
let someone else pay for it by working at a job that doesn’t require a full ATP license. The most common job used to get from 250 to
1500 hours is as a flight instructor but some also work flying skydiving planes, towing
banners, or for airlines flying small single-engine planes. Once that’s all done, after having been
in education continuously for a quarter of ones life until the age of 23 and having spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars one can finally start flying commercial passenger planes and
earning $30,000 a year. That’s a typical and even fair starting
salary for a first year first officer and, considering these individuals often have tens
or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, young pilots are often in a tough financial
situation. Most Americans pilots start their commercial
careers at regional airlines. The largest of these is SkyWest airlines which
is an airline that flies for other airlines. You could be flying any of the three major
American airlines—Delta, United, or American—and actually be on a Skywest operated flight. Skywest, along with other regional airlines,
operate all planes for these US airlines with under 76 seats. They fly the smallest planes which are actually
more expensive on a per passenger basis to operate than the larger planes. The regional airlines’ primary purpose is
to lower cost. The aviation industry is heavily unionized
so the major airlines would never be allowed to bring in pilots at a yearly salary of twenty
or thirty thousand dollars. Therefore, they contract these regional carriers
to operate the small expensive planes so the crew can be employed at a different pay-scale
even if the flights are branded as United or Delta or American. While a first year first officer for American
Airlines makes $88 per flight hour, a first year first officer for SkyWest only makes
$37. Pilots are only allowed to fly 900 hours per
calendar year in the US which works out to 75 hours per month or about 17 hours per week. Now, the idea of a 17 hour workweek probably
sounds great but these are only the hours in command of an airborne aircraft. They don’t account for the time it takes
to get to the airport, clear security, brief for the flight, inspect and prep the aircraft,
board passengers, deplane passengers, pack up, file paperwork, and get home or to a hotel. Pilots are primarily paid based on hours in
the air which is why you tend to see the more senior pilots flying the longer routes. A typical four-day trip for a regional pilot
in the US might see them flying on Monday from Minneapolis to Fargo, Fargo to Minneapolis,
Minneapolis to Pittsburgh, then Pittsburgh to Boston where they would stay overnight. The next day, Tuesday, they would fly from
Boston to Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to Boston, and Boston to Nashville. After an overnight they would fly Nashville
to Boston, Boston to Jacksonville, and Jacksonville to Boston. Finally, on Thursday, they would fly from
Boston to Norfolk and then Norfolk to Minneapolis. Over that four day, twelve leg trip they would
be in the air for just over 19 hours. That regional pilot would have been almost
constantly either working, sleeping, or eating. Compare that to a long-haul pilot flying an
a330. They would leave Atlanta on a Monday night,
fly to Amsterdam arriving Tuesday morning, and fly back Thursday after having had a full
48 hours free in Amsterdam. On that trip the pilot would have accumulated
16 flight hours—not all that different from the hours that the regional pilot gained after
working constantly for four days. It’s no wonder why the most senior pilots,
who have the seniority to decide which type of plane and routes they fly, almost always
go for the long-haul routes. Meanwhile, while the young pilots don’t
get paid much and work tougher schedules, the advantage for them of working for these
regional airlines is that they can gain the experience and hours needed to get a job at
a more desirable airline. The problem that the airline industry if facing
is that not enough people are willing to put themselves through all the years of expensive
training, low pay, and long hours to get to the stage where they make good money and fly
the most interesting routes. There is a shortage of pilots but it’s hard
to know how bad this shortage is—some say it’s a myth, others will say it’s already
chronic—but by one estimate the US alone will have 1,600 pilot jobs unfilled by 2020. While the problem is only predicted to get
worse, the shortage of pilots is already having consequences. Emirates Airlines denies having any pilot
shortage but the reality is that in April 2018 they flew 36 777’s and 10 a380’s
over to Dubai World Central Airport, a less busy airport than the main Dubai airport,
and left those airplanes there on the ground for months because there just weren’t enough
pilots to fly them. The concerning thing is, Emirates pilots are
some of the best paid in the industry. Even young Emirates pilots make more than
$200,000 a year and, thanks to local laws, that’s tax-free income. Emirates has come under criticism for long
work hours, insufficient rest periods, and minimal pilot staffing for their longest haul
flights which is likely a contributing factor to their difficulty in attracting pilots but,
if they’re having trouble recruiting pilots while paying so much that’s not a great
sign for the industry. These high salaries from some airlines are
also a contributing factor to the shortage in the US and Europe, though. The UAE is a small country with two massive
airlines so they rely on recruiting foreign pilots. China, while not a small country, also doesn’t
have enough local pilots to staff their tremendously fast growing airline industry. The country’s airlines therefore pay a starting
salary of $312,000 per year to foreign pilots and some make up to $500,000. While working conditions are tough, it’s
still no wonder why 10% of all pilots in China are now foreigners. With more and more pilots heading overseas
to the best paying pilot jobs the US, Europe, and other western countries are left with
fewer and fewer people to fly their planes. The short-term solution for airlines in the
US has been to fast track pilots through the early phase of their careers flying small
jets for low pay and get more pilots flying the larger planes earlier. That leaves the brunt of the impact of this
shortage on small towns served by these small planes. US airlines especially, thanks to the country’s
vastness, operate with route networks emphasizing service to small airports. Rather amazingly, there are 553 airports in
the US with commercial service. United is perhaps the most focused among the
big three US airlines on small town service with 235 domestic destinations but, due to
the lack of pilots, it’s having to cancel routes. In September 2018 alone the airline stopped
service from Chicago to Willard, Illinois, Mobile, Alabama, and Manchester, New Hampshire
even though these routes were likely profitable. United isn’t alone in this. Horizon Air, the subsidiary operating Alaska
Airlines’ regional flights, had to cancel thousands of flights in 2017 due to a severe
lack of pilots. There are a couple of possible solutions to
this crisis. The most obvious one is to increase pay and
to improve working conditions but, from the airlines’ perspectives, that’s the last-ditch
solution as they focus on their bottom lines. While it’s tough to sympathize with these
billion dollar businesses losing some money as a result of paying a more livable wage,
the reality is that if they’re having to pay more for the pilots to serve small towns
it’s going to cost more to fly to small towns and those living in small towns are
often the ones least able to pay. Another commonly proposed solution is to attract
more women pilots. Only 6.7% of the world’s pilots are female
and so, by putting more effort into recruiting that half of the population airlines could
potentially increase pilot numbers without increasing pay. More and more airlines, such as Lufthansa
and Emirates, are also operating up their own flights schools where cadets can train
for reduced rates or for free as long as they end up working at the airline. Airlines are also working to reduce the number
of pilots needed. Emirates, for example, reduced the number
of pilots it uses on some of its longest flights. On the 13 hour flight from Dubai to Sydney,
for example, they now only staff three pilots instead of four which means that each only
gets four hours of inflight rest instead of six. Finally, one of the more controversial proposals
to fix this issue has been to increase automation in the cockpit to the point where only one
or possibly zero pilots are needed to fly. This proposal has met criticism from pilots,
cabin crew, and the public alike as many opponents point out that the cockpit is already highly
automated and the pilot’s main role is to troubleshoot if things go wrong. Nonetheless, with captains of wide-body planes
earning more than $300 per flight hour the cost of crewing the cockpit can be as much
as $19,000 each way on the longest flights like San Francisco to Singapore so there’s
certainly financial pressure on airlines to cut down the need for pilots if they can. There are thousands of people who become pilots
each year but there are millions more who want to become pilots. To bring more people into the industry all
airlines need to do is to lower the extraordinarily high barrier to entry since as the industry
grows worldwide, the allure of the skies won’t be enough to get enough pilots into the cockpit. If you want to become a pilot two of the major
things you absolutely need to have a solid grasp of are math and physics. Brilliant is a great place to learn those
two subjects since their courses break down concepts into their intuitive principles and
build them back up so you don’t just memorize how do something, you understand it. They also have plenty of other courses on
super interesting subjects like logic, probability, astronomy, machine learning, and more. They really put a lot of work into perfecting
each and every course they have and best of all, you can sign up for Brilliant at brilliant.org/Wendover
and access some courses for free then, by being one of the first 200 to use that same
link, you will also get 20% off when you upgrade to premium and you’ll be helping to support
Wendover Productions.
Loved the video, but just one mistake I found. At 8:27 it says that United cancelled flights to Willard, Illinois, while in fact the route was to Champaign, Illinois from Chicago, and Willard is the name of the airport. Thought I'd point that out.
How does push for women help in reducing costs? Won't they face the same high investment, shitty pay scenario?
I don't understand the attracting more women thing, if the work conditions are bad and the pay is also bad, how are you going to attract more women without changing those?
Love the video! As a professional in the industry (airport operations at St. Louis-Lambert), this helps me explain to my family and friends why I chose not to fly in college.
I also loved how you covered regional airlines. Is there a chance you could cover regionals more in a future episode? I worked at a regional airport doing ops/ARFF for 8 months, and I've always been interested in how they schedule flights and how they determine which domestic flights are regional/main carrier.
Completely different it Europe, there is a shortage yes but that's more so from low cost carriers expanding rapidly. You don't need 1500 flying hours(ATPL license) to fly a jet, you only need your commercial license which at the end equals 200 flying hours. You can spend $40k for your training and in less than 2 years you can be making $60k with an airline. It's really not bad at all. The US just has too many regional airlines and a stupid minimum flying hour law. Great video though, as always!
Why not just lower the CEO and the execs pay?