Louisville Youth Club Helping Relieve Pilot Shortage

KY – The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected a need for a growth rate of 13% in commercial and airline pilot employment over the next ten years. As many of you know, an ongoing shortage of pilots has begun making a noticeable impact on the scheduling of regional and some major airline flights. The shortage is due to multiple factors including the mandatory age-65 retirement of airline pilots, the evaporation of the military as a source of experienced pilots, and a lack of new pilot trainees entering the pipeline over the past two decades.

Over the past several years that reality has changed dramatically. Flight training schools are swamped with students and hurting for instructors as many of them are lured to the regional airlines because of career advancement and better pay. At the same time, the major airlines are poaching pilots from the regionals with the promise of even better financial incentives than in recent history.

There is reason for optimism, however: Flying clubs, especially those aimed at young people, are forming at the fastest rate in years. One of them, Flight Club 502 in Louisville, Kentucky, is helping to alleviate the pilot shortage by getting teenagers involved and passionate about flying. Based at Bowman Field Airport (LOU) in Louisville, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit was originally formed in 2015 as a girls-only group but has since gone coed. Members are aged 13-20 and Junior Flight Club members are 8-12. The club has 310 members who own and operate the club with adult supervision and in its seven years of operation they have produced 72 private pilots and 183 have successfully soloed. The adult volunteer members are fully dedicated to the club’s mission of teaching young people about leadership and success through Next Gen/STEM education and setting realistic goals in aviation.