Some US carriers tip pilot-recruiting efforts to Australia

Some U.S. airlines confronting heated competition to hire pilots have shifted their recruiting efforts to foreign shores and begun employing aviators from Australia. 

Breeze Airways, the upstart carrier founded by aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman, hired eight pilots after having received 275 applications from Australia since January, and the first should be flying by mid-June. SkyWest Inc.’s airline unit has restarted a recruiting effort in the country that was closed during the pandemic. 

The effort to hire from outside the U.S. illustrates the pressure on carriers after thousands of pilots took buyout packages or retired early when travel collapsed during the pandemic, worsening an existing shortage. That’s triggered a deluge of wage increases and bonuses to keep pilots at smaller carriers and prompted the largest airlines to devise new ways to recruit and train future employees.

“There’s never been a better time to become a pilot in America,” said Marissa Snow, a spokeswoman for SkyWest, the largest U.S. regional airline. “There’s a crew availability issue we have here, and there’s great opportunity.” 

SkyWest operates flights for United Airlines Holdings Inc., American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc., and can offer pilots an eventual guaranteed interview with the larger carriers. It’s also paying a $40,000 bonus for new captain hires and other financial incentives.

SkyWest shares rose less than 1% at 9:37 a.m. in New York trading. The shares tumbled 28% this year through March 25.

Attractive Territory

Australia is particularly attractive because a visa covering specialty occupations in the U.S. is relatively easy to acquire, according to Breeze. It is also renewable for unlimited two-year periods. Both Breeze and SkyWest are covering the cost of acquiring the permit. Australian pilot certification requirements are similar to those in the U.S. and licenses may be converted, with at least partial credit for flying experience.

CommutAir, which operates regional flights for United using 50-seat jets, has had a recruiting program in Australia since before the pandemic, providing “a consistent applicant pool,” said Erik Kane, a spokesman. The carrier is paying a $50,000 sign-on bonus for captains.  

“The main attraction has been that flying for a U.S. airline offers more opportunities because of the size of the country and how much travel is here, and we pay a little bit better,” Kane said. “Folks who have high aspirations of a really successful career in aviation just see flying in the U.S. as a way to do that.” 

Breeze Expansion

Breeze, a unit of Breeze Aviation Group Inc., expects to add as many as 20 Australian pilots a month once regularly scheduled interviews begin, Chris Owens, the carrier’s vice president of flight operations, said in an interview. 

Breeze is scheduled to begin flying its first Airbus A220-300 planes in May and is wooing more experienced pilots by hiring them at a second-year captain’s rate, which was recently increased by 25%. The carrier, based near Salt Lake City, will be hiring “continuously for the foreseeable future” as it receives one new A220 a month for the next 78 months, Owens said. The airline could grow “a little quicker” absent the pilot shortage, CEO Neeleman said earlier this month.

Breeze hasn’t ruled out eventually recruiting from other countries as well, but that generally is a more complex process with a longer time frame, Owens said. It will schedule about 150 interviews over the next few months from the initial batch of Australian applicants.