Unless a pilot starts out in the military, with all of the risks that come with it, commuters are the only way of building turbine time.
Some European airlines use ab initio training schemes. Lufthansa has for many years, but most US carriers seem too penny wise and pound foolish to even consider this.
You don't just have pilot retirements reducing the supply of developed world ATPs, either. Some Middle Eastern and Asian airlines are largely crewed by American and EU expats flying on contract. It takes a lot of pilots to support a fleet as large as some of these carriers have.
I guess I'm trying to say that with the military training far fewer pilots than it once did and also doing a better job of retaining them, commuter carriers look like the only viable source of future crews for the major carriers based in this country.
It's not as though there are all that many of them available either. It all begins with PPL training and there are fewer people starting PPL training with each passing year.
Some European airlines use ab initio training schemes. Lufthansa has for many years, but most US carriers seem too penny wise and pound foolish to even consider this.
You don't just have pilot retirements reducing the supply of developed world ATPs, either. Some Middle Eastern and Asian airlines are largely crewed by American and EU expats flying on contract. It takes a lot of pilots to support a fleet as large as some of these carriers have.
I guess I'm trying to say that with the military training far fewer pilots than it once did and also doing a better job of retaining them, commuter carriers look like the only viable source of future crews for the major carriers based in this country.
It's not as though there are all that many of them available either. It all begins with PPL training and there are fewer people starting PPL training with each passing year.