Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air has a significant shortage of pilots for its 76 seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft.
The shortage became a crisis this past month when Horizon was forced to cancel more than 318 flights because it didn’t have enough pilots to fly all its planes.
In response, the airline is now pre-emptively canceling flights later in the summer and is weighing if it needs to pare its schedules for the rest of the year.
In an effort to reduce cancellations, it’s also sending out managers who are qualified pilots to fly the planes and offering double pay to pilots who fly extra flights.
Horizon Air Q400 in Pasco, Washington
About 17,000 passengers with forward bookings for travel between August 4 and September 3 have had to be rescheduled as the airline has cut a flight a day on routes like Seattle – Boise, Spokane, and Portland and Portland – Sacramento and Redmond representing 6.2% of the regional airline’s schedule.
They’re offering higher rates of overtime pay and increasing their throughput to onboard pilots and offering $20,000 recruitment bonuses in the hopes of maintaining their fall and winter schedules. The pilots union, which negotiated 150% overtime pay in its contract, objects to the airline offering double pay calling it a “bribe” since of course what they want are more pilot (more union members).
well this is a shocker but interesting we have not heard this from other media. I am a high mileage flyer and this is not welcomed news. Will write this morning about this.
Thanks for the heads-up. I have bought an AS ticket to fly home via SEA to Victoria BC in late August! I suppose if worse comes to worst, I could stay my first night in a hotel in Seattle, then ride the Victoria Clipper ferry the next day (at AS expense!)
*. . .fly FROM home. . .”
It would be great to see an in-depth article (if not here, than somewhere else) about the reasons behind this. I’ve heard of the decline of the piloting profession, with the awful pay and conditions for entry level pilots in regional airlines. Is it finally so bad that people just won’t apply anymore?
Someone tell the recruiting manager at Air Alaska to give me a bond and I’ll fly for them
The industry caused this themselves. There are plenty of pilots but they offer way bellow market salaries for the qualifications they want. They want astronauts who work on mc donalds salaries.