Letters: Pilot Shortage

This Letter to the Editor appear in the Nov. 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today .

I just heard about the impending pilot shortage and the new regulatory requirement for 1,500 hours to qualify — five times the existing requirement.

This “overkill” change is being imposed on an industry that went more than a decade without a commercial fatality.

This is an industry where the unions and regulatory restrictions have bankrupted airline after airline.

It’s gotten to where baggage handlers are making more than entry-level pilots. Experts are saying, “Why would anyone in this environment want to aspire to become a pilot?”

Young people aren’t showing up. The average age of pilots is growing older and older.

Does this sound familiar? Why would anyone in their right mind want to become a doctor?

And, really, why would anyone want to be a professional truck driver?

I’ve said many times, there is something far worse than $6 to $8 per gallon fuel, and that is not being able to buy fuel at any price.

Think about . . .

• A shortage of pilots.

• A shortage of doctors.

• A shortage of professional drivers.

• A shortage of fuel.

• A shortage of refineries.

• A shortage of capital and credit.

• A shortage of jobs.

It may just require government intervention and nationalization to save ourselves from ourselves.

Just a thought . . .

David Owen

President

National Association of Small Trucking Companies

Gallatin, Tenn.