There’s a lot of noise out there about “the pilot shortage.” Here’s the honest version: it’s real, but it’s not where most flight school ads say it is — and we’d rather you know that before you enroll than find it out after.
Mandatory retirement at 65 is pulling experienced captains out of the majors faster than the industry can replace them — Boeing’s own Pilot and Technician Outlook projects the industry will need hundreds of thousands of new pilots globally over the next two decades, driven largely by that retirement wave.
The FAA issued a record number of commercial pilot certificates and CFI certificates in 2025 — more than ever before. At the same time, initial ATP certificates (the credential that actually gets you into an airline seat) have fallen for three straight years. That gap is real, and it means the stretch between finishing your Commercial certificate and reaching airline minimums is more competitive than it was a few years ago.
Our fleet grows every year, and that means real, new CFI positions open here as we expand — but we can’t promise every graduate an instructing job with us, and we won’t pretend we can. A single CFI can realistically train a handful of students a year; our own instructor growth will never keep pace with our own graduating classes on a one-to-one basis. What we can promise: our graduates get priority consideration for the CFI openings we do have, honest help finding instructing or other flying work elsewhere when we can’t place you ourselves, and — once we have real data — our actual placement numbers, published, not just claimed.
Regional first officer pay has climbed significantly in recent years, and senior captains at major airlines regularly earn well into six figures with real union-backed benefits. The climb to get there is real work. We’d rather tell you that now.