Pilots at Southwest Airlines have overwhelmingly approved a new contract that will raise their pay rates by nearly 50% by 2028, becoming the last group of pilots at the nation’s four biggest airlines to score huge raises.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said Monday that the agreement covering pay and other issues for about 11,000 pilots was ratified by a 93% to 7% margin.
Airline labor groups – and pilots in particular – have succeeded in negotiating pay raises over the past year as most U.S. have returned to solid profitability coming out of the pandemic. Pilots have been helped by a shortage, particularly at smaller carriers that act as training grounds for American, Delta, United and Southwest.
The Southwest agreement followed more than three years of bargaining.
Or get training in the military for free while getting paid for it, as a lot of pilots do, and have done.
In the 80s, 2/3 of commercial pilots had prior military, today it’s still about a third. (Service branches have a pilot shortage, and require over 10 years on the contract due to the cost of training with their advanced craft, which is likely a big part of why the number is so low today).
That is an option, but it’s not like it’s an easy one. You have to have a bachelor’s already before applying, meaning you’re probably in debt, and then go through all the bs it takes to not only join the military but then meet the vast amount of qualifications to get rated. Then endure years of schooling at a fast pace, get to your first assignment, continue to perform well for 10 years, all while being under the pressure of being in the military and knowing you could get deployed to a combat area. You can also join an academy, but you need to apply before 21 or something, and that along with the requirements needed to get into the academy are a lot too.
Never said it was easy, but it doesn’t spend every penny of your money.
You don’t even have to go into debt for the bachelors degree; you can join with whatever job isn’t likely to deploy you (more jobs than you’d think aren’t really deployed) go to college free while in (doesn’t count against GI bill or anything), and then apply for a rate change to the pilot program.
Sure it means more military, but again, doesn’t spend all your money.
There is even a way to use your gi bill for flight training (you have to have a private pilots license already, but that’s a lot cheaper than a commercial one, and pass a medical qualification) so you could hypothetically serve 4 years as whatever rating, get your private license and then have the rest of your training covered.