Tomorrow’s pilots are finding fewer instructors to train them as airlines whisk up new employees with fewer and fewer flight hours, warned NBAA exhibitors at the show this morning.

Exhibitors representing schools from coast to coast report sending graduates to airlines without first hiring them as instructors, which is the traditional path to gaining experience and educating the next class.

“They can go straight from graduation into right-seat jobs, and that was not the case even two years ago,” said Jon Merwin, who assists Embry-Riddle (booth 3231) graduates with job placement. Internship programs put some in corporate aviation, but almost all start with regional airlines that ask for as little as 250h of experience.

Following 9/11, those figures rose to 1,500h and 500h specific experience, according to Atlanta-based Aviation Information Resources. AIR’s monthly survey showed airlines hired 716 pilots hired in September 2006, and 1,132 last month. <

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