Memorial Day Weekend Flights Cancelled Due To Pilot Shortages

Over the holiday weekend, U.S. airlines were forced to cancel more than 2,500 flights due to a variety of issues, primarily pilot staffing shortages. The cancellations left thousands of passengers temporarily stranded while airlines scrambled to reschedule and accommodate for delays.

Delta Airlines alone cancelled over 700 flights and smaller carriers such as Jet Blue saw delays on 25% of flights, with many others seeing nearly 5% of their scheduled flights entirely cancelled. Going into the summer, Delta expects to cut up to 100 flights a day from its schedule “to prevent major travel disruptions”, saying it will “build additional resilience in our system and improve operational reliability for our customers and employees.”

On the cusp of what is expected to be a record setting summer travel season, airlines are looking for ways to incentivize and retain talented pilots in their pools through aggressive hiring and retention bonuses, improved route and domicile selections and sourcing new recruits from regional airlines.

However, the strategy of attracting captains from regionals will leave many smaller destinations and routes with fewer flights or without service entirely as their pilot inventory decreases. This creates a huge demand for qualified First Officers and flight school graduates to take over the empty seats in order to build operational capacities back to pre-Covid levels, something that our partner SkyWest is combatting by offering huge tuition reimbursements to flight attendants that want to transition to first officer and eventually, captain.

Despite their efforts, airlines are still anticipating a shortage, as according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 14,000 pilot openings are projected for each year over the next decade. This means that right now, student pilots will be on the leading edge of one of the most in demand career hiring curves of recent memory. Today’s student pilots are poised to take advantage of the massive labor shortage in the coming years and many are already seeing the benefits in the form of tuition reimbursements and guaranteed interviews upon graduation.

AeroGuard’s Pilot Pathway Program, in partnership with SkyWest makes it possible for you to be airline ready in about two years though our accelerated training and puts you on a direct path to a major airline, something that we pioneered to help combat the pilot shortage and put our students in control of their aviation future.

By partnering with SkyWest Airlines, the largest U.S. regional carrier, we are able to give our students a clear path toward a successful and lucrative career as a professional pilot, with guaranteed interviews and tuition reimbursements of up to $17,500!

Connect with an Enrollment Advisor today to find out more about AeroGuard’s professionally focused, accelerated flight training.