There is no pilot shortage, only a shortage of pilots who will work for nothing. In the US Pilots on feeder airlines are being paid less than $40,000 a year. They have to work other jobs stacking shelves in supermarkets to survive. It's going that way in Oz too. People are now paying to work for some business's. This behaviour is going right up the scale, the likes of Virgin Oz pilots have to pay for their own 737 rating.


Gone are the days where people learn to fly and go and do the usual 15 years real flying before they go to airlines. Quite a few foreign airlines have 200 hour pilots going into the right seat of a 737, the left seat pilot might only have 2500 hours, less than 500 hours would be hands on flying.