How many jobs is out there for airliner pilots?

dman15333

Hi,
I am wondering if you completed all your pilot training and received all your licenses and you are qualified to fly, how much jobs is actually out there for airliner pilots and how easy is it to get one with all qualifications, for working for BA, Aer Lingus, Emirates etc.

Thanks

Skuxx

Depends really, I'm not sure is there many jobs out there with the airlines fulltime, but if you have a type and some hours under your belt, there seems to be lots of contracts available.
Have a look on www.aviationjobsearch.com plenty on there!!

Jumboman

Theirs likely to be a lot of jobs in the "bric countries" in the coming years.

Lustrum

alan1990 wrote: »

Depends really, I'm not sure is there many jobs out there with the airlines fulltime, but if you have a type and some hours under your belt, there seems to be lots of contracts available.
Have a look on www.aviationjobsearch.com plenty on there!!

It's getting the hours that's the problem, there's not a huge amount of jobs at the moment for newly qualified pilots, especially as there's a rumour Ryanair aren't hiring any Irish (but that depends on who you talk to).

LeftBase

Lustrum wrote: »

It's getting the hours that's the problem, there's not a huge amount of jobs at the moment for newly qualified pilots, especially as there's a rumour Ryanair aren't hiring any Irish (but that depends on who you talk to).

It also depends who/how you approach when applying.

Lustrum

LeftBase wrote: »

It also depends who/how you approach when applying.

Any chance you would care to elaborate on what the secret is? Because emigrating to take a minimum wage job (which at least is) in the industry, leaving my wife behind, visiting countless gliding clubs, skydiving clubs, small operators, air ambulances etc, on top of trying to make contacts in lots of different airlines isn't working for me at the moment. And I would love to be given some advice that might help.

No doubt there will be a pilot shortage sometime, and maybe the OP will finish their training at just the right time, but at the moment, the percentage that are getting paid flying jobs that I know of is pretty small.

eatmyshorts

Job opportunities at the minute are pretty limited. If you've got experience on Airbus or Boeing, there's quite a few, but as someone mentioned earlier most of them are in the Middle East and Far East.
I don't see that situation changing for a long time.

airboos

If you know nothing about the industry and are not a pilot then please don't encourage someone with glib comments based on hearsay.

The reality is that after spending the guts of 100k on your training the main employer at the moment for low houred pilots straight out of flying school is Ryanair. They will take another 30k off you and most likely have you based somewhere in Europe that you don't wish to live. You will be on whats called a Brookfield contract where you get paid by the hour. As you gain more experience and years of service contracting to Ryanair your hourly rate goes up but you then become more costly and so your annual hours are likely to reduce and hence your income. After a few years you will be trying to get out of the place and follow a well trodden trail to the Middle East where you will join the bottom of a seniority list and be staring down the barrel of time to command in excess of 10 years or more.

Jobs with Aer Lingus are few and far between. The last cadet scheme attracted thousands of applications for around 20 places. BA have a mentored scheme but you have to front up with the cash. BA also take direct entry pilots but you will need a few thousand hours and they closed out the hold pool last year having not recruited for the past 5-6 years or so.

Emirates will only be interested in you when you have around 3,000 hours and prefer jet time. Its the same for the other ME and Asian airlines.

This industry is one big conundrum. On the one hand you have no end of fresh meat being popped out of the flying schools but with minimum hours and no experience. And then on the other you have a constant demand for Captains with serious jet time.

If your interested in becoming a pilot then I would go onto pprune and in particular start reading through the wanabee stickies on the forums there. Unfortunately these threads tend to attract far to many spotters to warrant serious discussion.

saspeir

airboos wrote: »

If you know nothing about the industry and are not a pilot then please don't encourage someone with glib comments based on hearsay.

The reality is that after spending the guts of 100k on your training the main employer at the moment for low houred pilots straight out of flying school is Ryanair. They will take another 30k off you and most likely have you based somewhere in Europe that you don't wish to live. You will be on whats called a Brookfield contract where you get paid by the hour. As you gain more experience and years of service contracting to Ryanair your hourly rate goes up but you then become more costly and so your annual hours are likely to reduce and hence your income. After a few years you will be trying to get out of the place and follow a well trodden trail to the Middle East where you will join the bottom of a seniority list and be staring down the barrel of time to command in excess of 10 years or more.

Jobs with Aer Lingus are few and far between. The last cadet scheme attracted thousands of applications for around 20 places. BA have a mentored scheme but you have to front up with the cash. BA also take direct entry pilots but you will need a few thousand hours and they closed out the hold pool last year having not recruited for the past 5-6 years or so.

Emirates will only be interested in you when you have around 3,000 hours and prefer jet time. Its the same for the other ME and Asian airlines.

This industry is one big conundrum. On the one hand you have no end of fresh meat being popped out of the flying schools but with minimum hours and no experience. And then on the other you have a constant demand for Captains with serious jet time.

If your interested in becoming a pilot then I would go onto pprune and in particular start reading through the wanabee stickies on the forums there. Unfortunately these threads tend to attract far to many spotters to warrant serious discussion.

Seems accurate from what I've heard. How do you see the next 10 years of recruitment then? What would you do if you wanted to enter the industry?

LeftBase

airboos wrote: »

If your interested in becoming a pilot then I would go onto pprune and in particular start reading through the wanabee stickies on the forums there. Unfortunately these threads tend to attract far to many spotters to warrant serious discussion.

I wouldnt go putting too much faith in pprune either if I was a newbie.

Lustrum

If you want to get a snotty reply from some clown who is just looking for another excuse to give out about RYR, Pay to fly and whatever else is annoying them at the moment, then by all means, ask the question on pprune - personally, I find the people writing on here a lot more balanced and helpful than anything on pprune.

From my experience, most of what airboos says is true. Asking what the next 10 years holds though is anyone's guess. Talk to a flight school and they'll tell you there's a huge shortage predicted and you're training at just the right time. Talk to anyone with a CPL/MEIR that's searching for a job and you'll get a very different answer.