Officials from United Airlines and American Airlines say complications of the Covid pandemic, including a recent spike in cases among pilots, have taken a toll on a staff roster that already faced shortages predating 2020 — and air travel out of Greater Washington is feeling the effects.
To combat the issue, United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) started ramping up its pilot hiring last spring, despite the pandemic’s impact on the business in the short term, said Mary Ann Schaffer, United’s chief pilot, who is based in D.C. Training pilots can take three to five years.
“We hired more pilots last year … than we had in our history during that same time frame, and we expect to build on those same numbers this year,” Schaffer said in an interview with the Washington Business Journal. “Here, in the base of Washington, where we fly out of all three major metropolitan airports, we’re going to see a substantial increase in the number of pilots that are going to be based here.”
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Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
