A flight engineer enters a CAE Inc. 7000 series Boeing Co. 737-800 flight simulator at a CAE facility in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Tuesday, August 13, 2019.

Christinne pussy | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Some of the airline’s most sought-after flights this summer don’t even leave the ground.

Flight simulators from Atlanta to Dallas to Miami and elsewhere are buzzing as airlines struggle to train hundreds of pilots to use one Increase in bookings that started this spring when vaccinations were introduced and Covid-era restrictions eased.

Have domestic vacation trips recovered to 2019 levelswhile business travel is also recovering, airlines said this month.

Airlines have received $ 54 billion in federal aid since March 2020 in return for not laying off workers. But voluntary departures, changed fleets and the rapidly increasing demand for travel have created a need for pilot training that, according to industry experts, is unparalleled. Reduced flight schedules also meant pilots failed to make their minimum take-offs and landings, which were necessary to maintain their flight status. Training pilots on new aircraft can take weeks, while annual retraining can take a few days.

“What is unique about this experience is the drop-off in business [early in the pandemic] was an existential threat to business, “said Bryan Terry, Deloitte’s global airline leader.” And what came, the unexpected part, the return to travel came faster than expected.

That “makes a very tight schedule” for pilot training, he added.

The airline’s executives urged pilots and other employees to take early retirement and take absences at reduced wages to cut costs. They parked hundreds of jets and put some planes on display entirely.

David Johnson, and American Airlines The first officer of the Airbus A320 was given a short leave of absence in autumn between two aid packages from the federal airlines. While he was called back after that next round December’s federal support set its five-day training session to more than five months later, meaning the pilots won’t be returning to the line immediately.

Attracting enough pilots through training, which can become tedious when changing aircraft, will help determine how well airlines are responding to the recovery in demand. Summer storms and staff shortages make operations difficult Southwest Airlines and American Airlines and other airlines this summer. When not enough pilots are ready to fly, airlines have less support.

“They came into the summer with very little wiggle room,” said Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, which represents the airline’s aviators, of the Dallas-based airline.

Southwest, which recently said it flies almost as much as it did in the summer of 2019, more than other airlines, suffered hundreds of Failures and delays Mid-June and early July, triggered by bad weather and technical problems.

Southwest still has around 500 first officers on temporary leave, the company said. The approximately 900 pilots who were called back prematurely from vacation have exceeded their training capacity, the union said.

Pilot training begins at 5:30 a.m. most days and ends at 11 p.m., a spokesman said. The airline is in the process of hiring check pilots from its ranks as well as flight instructors, he added.

American Airlines, which also fly more than its competitors United Airlines and Delta AirlinesAccording to a company announcement in April, he had expected to complete his pilot training by the end of the summer. However, the airline has moved this up to allow most pilots to complete training by the end of June, in part with additional training capacity to keep up with the robust summer schedule, according to those familiar with the matter.

More than 90% of Americans Boeing 737 pilots received training on the 737 Max, the aircraft that regulators re-released to fly after two fatal crashes, said a person familiar with the operation. It decided to train the remaining roughly 10% on the Max once the pilots completed their requalification training, said the person. The carrier flies both the Max and an older 737.

The airline was also looking for volunteers last month to fly temporarily from various hubs, including 777 pilots at its hub at Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

“We always knew – we prayed – we had to step on the gas at some point,” said Chip Long, Americans vice president of flight operations. “We’re doing this now and it feels really good.”

Long said the airline plans to hire more simulator pilots to handle the training loads.

At a turning point in the pandemic last week, American welcomed its first class of new pilots whose training was derailed by the virus in March 2020. Other airlines have also announced that they will do the same Resume settingwho will keep instructors and simulators busy for months.

american recently cut his schedule by around 1% or almost 1,000 flights by mid-July to avoid disruptions due to staff shortages or other problems

Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents the company’s 15,000 or so pilots, said the airline overwhelmed itself when it first started planning its late spring and summer flight schedule.

“Mother nature creates storms and management creates storms,” ​​he said.

Delta has been more cautious about opening flights this summer. The Atlanta-based airline had a large number of flight cancellations and delays over Thanksgiving and Christmas Lack of pilots.

Hundreds of Delta pilots have transferred to other planes or been promoted due to a series of aircraft shutdowns, pilot buyouts and other issues, the union says. The airline will employ nearly 700 first flight captains, an action that will require additional training.

“We want nothing less than for Delta to regain its position as an industry leader, a position they held before Covid,” said Chris Riggins, spokesman for the Delta Chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. “To help with this, our pilots have done their part throughout the pandemic. Now, as we recover, we are aggressively volunteering for overtime flights at a pace that has set a number of new consecutive monthly records going back to last November. “

Pilots have also been working record overtime hours for several months, the union said.

The airline said on Wednesday that training and recruitment in preparation for the summer of 2022 contributed to a four percentage point increase in costs in the second quarter.

Delta plans to Hire 1,000 pilots Over the next year, the airline is considering how to allow pilots to apply to fly certain aircraft to avoid training backups.

“One of the options we’re looking at is making more frequent and smaller ones [advanced entitlement bids] to allow us to more easily manage the training schedule and transition process, “wrote Bob Schmelzer, Director of Crew Resource Planning, Analytics and Reporting, in a July 9th memo to pilots.

Delta declined to say if it would have added more flights this summer if it had more trained pilots available.

United Airlines has escaped some of the problems that hit other airlines. Like Delta, it has added less capacity to the market. Its senior vice president of flight operations said an agreement last year with its pilots union, which trains many of its pilots and keeps many of its pilots ready to fly, will give the airline an edge over its competitors.

“Thanks to [the agreement], We are in a great position to support United’s recovery, “said Bryan Quigley in a July 7th employee statement of airline of choice.”