JetBlue Is Turning Supermarket Clerks and Baggage Handlers Into Pilots

[brooklynite]

Bloomberg

What do a supermarket clerk, an airline baggage handler and a heavy-equipment operator have in common? They’re among the first participants in JetBlue’s new program to turn people with little or no flight experience into pilots.

The initial six recruits begin the second phase of training Monday, after three weeks studying meteorology, aerodynamics, aircraft systems and the like. They’ll now spend about seven months in Arizona to begin flight training at CAE Oxford Aviation Academy. If successful -- and if they can handle the $125,000 price tag -- they should become first officers at JetBlue Airways Corp. in 2020.

U.S. carriers are seeking new ways to recruit as the industry faces a projected shortage of 15,000 aviators by 2026, according to the University of North Dakota. JetBlue’s Gateway Select program is the first of its kind in the U.S., although similar efforts have been used in Europe and Asia. It is one of seven recruitment programs at the New York-based airline.

...snip...

Of the recruits, one had 100 hours of flight time as a private pilot, another had about 35 hours and the rest had never flown a plane. The airline declined to make any students available for interviews.

[jehop61]

1. Great news

My 70+ spouse is so excited. Always wanted to be a pilot. And the fact his cataracts have been removed already is a plus.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I hope most don't end up with a $125K student loan and no job

[davidn3600]

5. The starting salary for a commercial airline pilot is very low

You can make a lot of money in this once you've gone up the ranks and have many years experience. But starting out, you'll make less than $30K a year. Yet, you will have some gigantic loans to repay. And your work-life balance will be awful.

[Major Nikon]

11. I'm a commercial pilot

I have the rating, but never had any desire to try and make a living out of it. Might be something I will pursue as a retirement gig, but not for the airlines.

[Separation]

14. If you can, try to get a bush pilot rating.

A good friend of mine retired and has been piloting most of his life. He finished his bush pilot rating about a year ago. He lives in Cordova Alaska. He pretty much writes his own paychecks and hours. He tells me that it can be dangerous but the good outweighs any of the negatives.

[Major Nikon]

17. There is no rating for bush pilot

It's just one type of commercial pilot. I could do it with the ratings I already have, but I don't want to live anywhere cold and it's just not the type of piloting I prefer to do anyway.

[Glassunion]

3. Good thing too, cause those self checkouts are killing jobs.

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. The way I see it - supermarket clerks and baggage handlers are only words..

If it's to be, it's up to me - the people involved are the hero's of their own destiny...and JetBlue has recognized this...it just shouldn't cost so much....like college, once a PERSON is given the tools and encouragement - how high is high...

[jberryhill]

10. That's a really good point

[Lee-Lee]

19. There is no cheap way to do it

You need time in the air, and flying costs a lot of money. Once you start training in and flying commercial sized aircraft it costs a whole lot of money.

I just looked it up, and to be a first officer requires 1500 hours of flight time. If they are getting to that level for $125000 that is just under $85 an hour of flight time if you don't factor the cost of the other education in. That is actually pretty damm cheap.

[mrmpa]

6. Isn't this what the military did in WWII......

however without the $125,000 price tag? Now, however if you're in the military and want to become a pilot, you better have that college degree. But in WWII, no matter the education, if the skills were there, you could be a pilot.

[Initech]

8. Now its whoever has the most money.

[hunter]

12. My grandpa had romantic dreams of being an Army Air Force pilot.

Alas, or maybe by some perverse fortune, the Army Air Force decided he was more valuable on the ground in World War II.

So far as I know he was the handsome officer with a driver and a big black car carrying the "get out of jail free" card for eccentric people deemed essential to the war effort. He may, or may not have, traveled overseas during the war. As eccentric as my grandpa was himself, he probably wasn't one of the essential people, insomuch as anyone in the military was.

When the war was over my grandpa was discharged with some mad skills involving exotic metals, and he was later an engineer for the Apollo Project.

He didn't talk about the war, maybe because he wasn't allowed to, but he was intensely proud of the work he did to land men on the moon.

Anyways, for most jobs I think there is an oversupply of people who could do the job well. It's the very rare person who is entirely indispensable in any endeavor.

For every airline pilot selected there are probably ten people who could do the job just as well, including a few supermarket clerks and baggage handlers.

[Ex Lurker]

15. The Army still has a Warrant Officer flight program

If you score high enough on the test, and pass the training, you can become an aviator without a degree. In many ways it's a better gig. Pay is nearly the same as an officer, and you can continue flying your whole career instead of moving up to staff and command billets.

[mrmpa]

16. That's cool. Didn't know that....n/t

[Lee-Lee]

18. Yes they do

Its very competitive to get in.

[Initech]

7. Sounds awesome! Where do I sign up?

[jmowreader]

9. Here's the course syllabus

http://pilots.jetblue.com/gateway-select/training

Looks like a pretty standard "train people to fly for two years" airline pilot school...with the advantage that you have a job waiting for you at the other end. I hope it works out for everyone involved, including the airline.

[OriginalGeek]

13. One of my friends in high school had his single engine license

before we graduated. My mom told me I wasn't allowed to go up in a plane with him but I did anyway. It was like 35 bucks for a half hour out of Love field in Dallas. (maybe that was 35 each - long time ago lol). It was cool as hell, though, flying around Dallas.

I think after school he was in the Air Force for a bit. Now he's into permaculture living in a straw-bale house he built up in Montana or somewhere. He has a goat and some chickens and a lot of acres and is perfectly happy.