U.S. Pilot Shortage Claims a Casualty: Will More Airlines Shut Down?
Photo Credit: A Great Lakes Beechcraft Beech 1900D taxis in Las Vegas in 2011. The airline is selling most of its assets because it doesn't have enough pilots. Flickr / Tomás Del Coro
Skift Take
Great Lakes Airlines is essentially going out of business. The Regional Airline Association is using this as a chance to lobby politicians to relax requirements on pilot training. But that's probably not necessary. There's reason to believe the Great Lakes situation was unique.
For at least five years, smaller U.S. airlines have said they feared a pilot shortage, warning travelers they might someday go out of business because no one would fly their planes.
Still, passengers mostly have been okay. Yes, Republic Airways filed bankruptcy two years ago in part to reorganize as a smaller, more nimble company more capable of attracting pilots, while other airlines, including Horizon Air, part of Alaska Air Group, have selectively canceled flights because they lacked pilots. And, yes, some regional carriers have shed their smallest jets and turboprops, preferring larger planes that can carry more people but still require the same two pilots.
This week, however, the national pilot shortage claimed a real casualty.
Great Lakes Airlines, a nearly 40-year-old company that once employed roughly 1,600 people, according to the Regional Airline Association, stopped flying on March 26 not because it ran out of money, but because it couldn't hire enough pilots. The a
