United Airlines began accepting applications for its flight academy on Tuesday, as part of a push to hire 10,000 pilots by 2030, as more of its aviators reach 65 years of age on a mandatory basis.
The airline announced in February 2020 that it had bought a flight school, but the Covid pandemic forced it to suspend training plans. United is now resuming plans to fill the ranks of pilots and prepare for growth as demand for travel returns. Last week he said he would start hiring nine pilots, starting with 300 candidates whose recruitment process was halted by the pandemic.
United Flight School aims to provide training to pilots with little or no experience. United said it wants to train 5,000 pilots and aims for half to be women and people of color. Just over 7% of United’s more than 12,000 pilots are women and 13% are people of color, United said.
The first class of 20 drivers will begin in the third quarter with a graduation date sometime in the first half of 2022, United said.
A pilot walks by United Airlines planes while they are seated at the gates of San Francisco International Airport on April 12, 2020 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
United and other airlines have intensified the hiring of pilots in recent years. Students will be able to apply for United’s Aviate recruitment program, which expands conditional job offers to candidates as they gain experience during training and working on smaller carriers. It can take a student about five years from the start of flight school to get a job at United.
United declined to say how much the flight academy would cost students, but said it would fund $ 1.2 million in scholarships “to break down financial barriers that limited access to the airline’s pilot trajectory for generations of women and people of color.JPMorgan Chase said it will provide another $ 1.2 million in scholarships to help increase diversity.