Insider: Pilot Rest and Retirement Causing Major Airline Changes

With the New Year come big changes for the travel industry, especially within the airline companies as they face a variety of challenges, including the pilot rest rules change that took effect Jan. 4 for the upcoming year.

But one insider tells TravelPulse that although the rest rules will cause industry changes, an even more significant game changer this year actually comes from a rule change made over six years ago.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) changed the retirement rules in December 2007, changing the qualifying retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65.

This caused a hiring freeze at the majors and regionals, which made it nearly impossible for a first officer to obtain a captain position unless a pilot retired or an airline purchased a significant amount of extra planes.

Although this dynamic modification in retirement age occurred years ago, its affects are continuously trickling down into the way major airline companies manage their aircrafts and pilots today.

“We are now seeing those retired aged pilots leaving at an alarming rate,” says I Nichols, first officer with US Airways Express.

“For some airlines (it’s a loss of) 50-60 per month, for the foreseeable future for every captain that leaves, a first Officer must be promoted to keep the staffing even.”

The new rest rules states that pilots are required to have ten hours off and eight hours of uninterrupted sleep between ending and starting the next day’s flights.

If their rest time becomes disturbed, what could that mean?

This can result in scheduling problems, delayed flights and possibly cancellations if airlines are unable to manage their time effectively and do not have available crew members at hand. The issues we saw with the JetBlue cancellations during winter storms could be a sign of things to come.

Determined to solve this problem, big wigs like United, Southwest and Delta are dipping into the regional pilot pool for new pilots. The regional airlines are in turn finding their trained professionals from flights schools and at higher qualified levels.

“This industry isn’t as lucrative as it once was,” Nichols said. “It is very expensive to get into and not financially rewarding for the first few years for regional level pilots.”

At the same time, some flight schools are unwilling to give up their flight instructors so they are offering better pay than the regionals or requiring they sign contracts to make them stay put.

Especially since the pay as a first officer at a major airline is considerably higher than that at the regional level and first officers are only considered captains once their seniority is high enough.

“I have to say, I do feel better about having the opportunity to have enough rest between ending and starting my day, but what we are seeing now are fewer days off and less productive trips,” says Nichols.

For example, a scheduled four-day trip came with up to 24 hours of flight pay for each day pilots were away. Now, a regular four-day trip is considered 14-17 hours with a 32-hour layover in a hotel, decreasing a standard trip to three days.

As part of the new rules, pilots cannot fly seven consecutive days without having 30 hours off, which gives some companies the ability to add an extra three-day trip to their pilots’ schedules, resulting in more time in the air and less days home.  

Nichols also realizes that there is still much to be done when trying to resolve challenges in the industry stating, “We have only scratched the surface.”

Follow me on Twitter @ChereseWeekesTP.