New York: UNITED States Airlines faces Severe crisis due to pilot shortages. Over the past two years, United Airlines has cut short its operations on nearly 150 local flights. Other airlines are also avoiding services. Airlines are facing a huge financial crisis due to the reduction in services.

Several U.S. airlines, including Frontier, are recruiting some pilots from Australia. American Airlines is selling bus tickets for some short routes.
But some airline executives warn the shortage could take years to solve.

"The pilot shortage for the industry is real, and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plans because there simply aren't enough pilots, at least not for the next five-plus years," United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said.

Kirby estimated the regional airlines United works with currently have about 150 airplanes grounded because of the pilot shortage.

The Covid pandemic halted pilot hiring as training and licensing slowed.

Airlines handed out early retirement packages to thousands of pilots and other employees aimed to cut labor bills when travel demand cratered during the depths of crisis.

"I feel like I walked away at the pinnacle," said one former captain for a major U.S. airline who took an early retirement package in 2020.

Now airlines are desperate to hire and train pilots, but the rush may take too long to avoid flight cuts.

Major U.S. airlines are trying to hire more than 12,000 pilots combined this year alone, more than double the previous record in annual hiring, according to Kit Darby, a pilot pay consultant and a retired United captain.

The shortage is particularly acute at regional carriers that feed major airlines' hubs from smaller cities. While hiring and retention bonuses have returned at those airlines, pay is lower there than at majors, and they are recruiting aggressively from those smaller carriers.

Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group, which flies for American and United, lost nearly $43 million in the last quarter as flight cuts mounted.

"We never fathomed attrition levels like this," said Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein. "If we don't fly our airplanes we lose money. You saw our quarterly numbers."

It takes Mesa an estimated 120 days to replace a pilot who gives two weeks' notice to go to another airline, according to Ornstein.
"We could use 200 pilots right now," he said.

Some carriers like Frontier and regional airline SkyWest are recruiting pilots from Australia under a special visa to help ease the shortfall, but the numbers are small compared with their overall ranks and hiring goals.

Regional carrier Republic Airways, which flies for American, Delta and United, last month petitioned the U.S. government to allow pilots to fly for the airline with 750 hours, half of the 1,500 currently required, if they go through the carrier's training program. There are already exemptions to the 1,500-hour rule, such as for U.S.-military trained pilots and those who attend two- and four-year programs that include flight training.

The proposal has received pushback from family members of victims of 2009's Colgan Air 3407 crash, the last fatal U.S. passenger commercial airline crash. The tragedy killed all 49 people on board and one on the ground, and ushered in the so-called 1,500-hour rule, aimed at ensuring pilot experience.

The Federal Aviation Administration cast doubt on whether the proposal would be approved.

"While anyone can request an exemption, it does not mean it will be granted," the FAA said in a statement to CNBC on Monday. "The FAA fully understands the intent of Congress when it established the 1,500-hour requirement and supports the safety goal it set out to achieve."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is considering introducing congressional legislation that could raise the mandatory airline pilot retirement age to at least 67 from the current age of 65, according to people familiar with Graham's plans.

About a third of the airline-qualified pilots in the U.S. are between the ages of 51 and 59, and 13% of the country's airline pilots will reach retirement age within the five years, according to the Regional Airline Association.
Graham's office did not respond to requests for comment.