Airline Staffing Shortages Could Last For a Decade

In recent months, flight delays and cancelations became too common prompting a federal investigation aimed at understanding the causes of the problem. One of the main reasons for the chaos is staffing shortages. For travelers wondering if this will soon come to an end, unfortunately, that might not be the case. This could potentially linger for as much as a decade.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that his office is investigating airlines for their “unrealistic scheduling”, or airlines overshooting their capacity to serve customers.

Currently, the aviation industry needs 32,000 commercial pilots, mechanics, and air traffic controllers according to FAA and the Transportation Department’s data.

Buttigieg says that “There’s definitely gaps in places.” He added that “The system is just uneven right now.”

When asked if airlines should be held accountable for this practice, the secretary responded by saying that “If an airline is knowingly flying an unrealistic schedule, there are going to be consequences.”   He said that “We take that very seriously because when you sell a ticket to a paying customer and you make profit off of that, you better be ready to do everything in your power to service that ticket. And we’re also going to hold you responsible for what happens if you can’t.”

Airlines Are At Fault

In June 2022, US Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut demanded airlines to take action. The lawmakers wrote to 10 different CEOs of different airlines.

The senators wrote, “While the industry has blamed these disruptions on unexpected weather and air traffic control issues, the data suggests the airlines themselves are at fault for many flight delays and cancellations.”

On December 16, 2022, 34 state attorneys general wrote to Secretary Buttigieg. The group recommended that the “USDOT should require airlines to advertise and sell only flights that they have adequate personnel to fly and support, and perform regular audits of airlines to ensure compliance and impose fines on airlines that do not comply.”

Staffing Shortages “Affect Us Now”

The staffing shortages started years before 2020. However, the COVID pandemic worsened the problem. It forced airlines to lay off workers, while others had to consider early retirement packages.

By 2022, when people started traveling again, airlines simply didn’t have enough manpower to keep up. Associate professor Dean Headly of Wichita State University says the staffing issue “affects us now.” He added that “They are leaving planes on the ground because they don’t have enough people to fly them for ground crews or anything like that.”

With the industry short of around 17,000 pilots, Headly thinks that “we can’t catch up that quick.” Because of this, airlines “cut back flights to smaller regional airports.” To make matters worse. Headley said that “Some of the predictions I’m hearing is that the pilot shortage won’t be resolved until 2032 or something like that.”