United Airlines CEO: There is a real pilot shortage

“United Airlines is going to be the biggest and the best airline in the world. We're positioned uniquely - our team is doing a great job.”

United CEO Scott Kirby discusses the future of United and the mounting challenges the airline industry faces.

[ADAMBUFFOLINO]

United offered pilots early retirements after receiving tax payer bailouts that were intended to keep them fully staffed.

United also canceled contracts with one of its regional carriers, ExpressJet, causing them to go out of business.

United is in this position 100% because of Scott Kirby.

[johnchummy]

This shortage has been created by the airline industry.

[vielumiereg]

It costs $100k to become an airline pilot from the ground up. That’s a massive financial risk to take for a job that potentially pays low, and also an industry that’s so economically sensitive. They need to start doing what airlines like Emirates have done, pay 100% of the training costs for your students, and then have them sign a contract that says they fly exclusively for them for a certain number of years. Everybody wins. Pilots get the hours, and pay, by the time the contract is up, they’ve got the hours to basically move to any airline they want, and the airlines will always have a supply of pilots in return.

[tech]

He created the shortage by treating employees like trash.

[lynwill]

Airlines knew this years ago. They failed to prepare and train people to enhance bench strength.

This didn’t happen overnight.

[gkenobi]

Why not pay your mechanics that actually fix the planes more money like Delta did?

[garyodle]

If there is genuinely a pilot shortage, and there is, then why is United saying they are going to focus on hiring minority pilots? That is a very small pool to recruit from. Why not aim to hire as many of the best pilots they can find until they are not short of pilots any more. Honestly, if I am a passenger on an airplane arriving at JFK at night during snow with crosswind conditions I am not saying, "I sure hope we have a minority pilot flying this thing." I'm saying, "I hope this pilot can handle these conditions and not kill us all."

[peterjohansen]

There is also a shortage of customer service causing me to ban united airlines.

[jixer]

There is not a pilot shortage, there is a pay shortage. The corp decision is wait for someone to accept less pay and go with them.

[yinhuili]

I'm glad that I'm no longer a United customer.

[topofthegreen]

Stop lying about the pilot shortage, if this were true, airlines would pay for flight training.

[johapi]

Airlines should stop requiring 1500 flight hours for F/O's. No shortage.

[stuartf]

Kirby has no morals and his moral compass is shot to pieces.

[pennyericksson]

There's a real flight attendant shortage, too. Flights go out understaffed all the time or get canceled in the first place. This fine CEO used the pandemic as an excuse to fire 500 seasoned international flight attendants, who had been hired long before him in the 1990s and were hard-working equal union members. "Too old and too expensive, let's get rid of them, hooray!". And now they are sending their lawyers after these fine workers in overseas labor courts to make sure they can never come back to work. "No capacity" was their main argument. Now they need staff for all those added flights and international destinations. At their London Heathrow base (which is desperately in need of more crew members), unfortunately, they need to wait until 01 April 2023 before they can transfer or hire flight attendants because a union agreement would require them to bring back the ex-employees they deliberately threw off the cliff in 2020. "Good leads the way!". The hypocrisy.

[HonestMagnet]

You only had to ask him ONE question. “How many applications from qualified pilots do you have on file right now.” THERE IS NO PILOT SHORTAGE.

[mepulley]

Oh yes government help. You mean like the billions that airlines received in PPE loans and now they want to not only blame government, but Reduce flights, so they can increase their profits.

[Nemura]

Stop putting so many restrictions to become a pilot. Like 200k student loans and Vax mandate, ect....

[markdc]

The US airlines received $54B in aid primarily to keep people employed so I’m not buying this guy’s BS. Richard Quest knows better and really needed to call this guy out during the interview!

[appomattoxross]

It would help if violent Greyhound type folks stop using the airlines.

[jixer]

All the way over paid ceos need to break off the front line workers...now.