Star Simpson

Yet I see very little discussion about global pilot shortages

Half of the current pilot workforce is required to retire in the next 10 years (age limits) and we aren't making many new ones (eg military)

Fuel is expensive and feeds into the cost of getting a pilot's license, a major financial commitment — we have fewer commercial pilots.

A typical pipeline pathway would once have been ~ Air Force -> regional airline -> main line passenger air carrier

We additionally increased the requirements for being an officer in a regional airliner in 2013 from 250 hours to 1,500. That's 6x more time!