Expert: D. Norkus - 12/9/2007

Question
Are there pilot's who after being trained in any US flying school are still unemployed or is it that all the pilots undergoing training in the US do get a job anywhere in the US?

Answer
Niel

Yes, I am sure there are some that do not get jobs.

There are three kinds of flying schools that aspiring airline pilots attend in the U.S.:

An airline affiliated academy, an aviation university or their local airport flight school or flying club.

Of those that attend an academy, all that finish the program get offered regional airline interviews at reduced flight experience levels because of their airline oriented training. If they do well, they are hired. The statistics on how many finish are provided by the school (usually in their advertising), so when they say "97% of graduates get hired" that leaves 3% that didn't get hired after completing training. Plus, there is no real way of knowing how many enrolled yet did not complete the program. For the most part, grads of these programs do get jobs from their promised interviews, but there is a very small percentage that pass the program yet fail their airline interview.

I have never seen statistics for those attending an aviation university and I don't know if they are even published. Many who graduate do not even meet the airlines minimums hiring requirements so after graduation they can't be hired anyway. These pilots need to go out and build up more flight time via small flying jobs like instructing or banner towing ect until they meet the flight time requirements for an airline job.

There is no way of knowing the statistics for those that attend one of the many thousands of local schools or flying clubs. Many aspiring pilots that train there intend on getting all their certificates and ratings to become a commercial pilot but others do not. Many also drop out for a variety of reasons but usually the cost is the biggest. I chose this route as did most of my pilot friends. On the whole, I think the success rate for this route really depends on the person as this method is more self paced and works around ones current job and family life, while the academy or university route is complete immersion for 12-18 months or 4 years.

Hope this helps
Dottie