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What is the cheapest and most effective way for my 18 year old son to become a commercial pilot with a major airline?

Pondlife
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Joseph Butkus
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    Sorry, this is way too broad, we can't offer career advice. – Ron Beyer May 18 '18 at 23:36
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    Why not? The answer is easy. Military. – John K May 19 '18 at 00:51
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    At this moment in history I think there's a valid concern that he will lose his job to robots within the time span of his career. – user3528438 May 19 '18 at 01:19
  • We usually can't answer these questions very well because so much depends on your personal situation. Which country are you in? Is your son willing and able to move to another country? Does he want to get a degree or not? What financial resources do you have? Is entering the military an option? Etc. You might get a better response on a discussion board; as a Q&A site, we try to find the single best answer for each question and there may be ten different answers to this one. – Pondlife May 19 '18 at 01:43
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    Robots? The cert process is so glacial, especially on the airline side, that this is very unlikely in our lifetimes. Single pilot airliners in 20 years? Maybe. But you will see it in GA and the corporate world long before. – John K May 19 '18 at 03:39

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Look for a community college with an aviation program, they're quick and VERY affordable. I attended Iowa Lakes Community College, I was able to get my Private, Commercial, Instrument, Multi-Engine, and Instructor ratings in 2 years for $38k. DO NOT send him to a large university like UND, the programs are insanely overpriced and they take 4 years solid. At Iowa Lakes, you can get done as fast as you can, people have gone from student to instructor in a year, it all depends on you, at universities you HAVE to stay all 4 years which is a killer in an industry so heavily reliant on seniority. I have the exact same ratings as a kid coming out of UND only I have 1/4 his debt and I'm probably already a captain at a regional when he first gets to the airlines. Airlines are REALLY hurting for pilots, this is absolutely the best time to be a pilot.

Mason Herrig
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  • The shortage of pilots in N America is so severe, made much worse by the stupid Colgan law requiring 1500 hours for regional ops, that the regionals frequently cancel flights and/or park aircraft due to lack of crews. The quality of new hires has been declining. Air Wisconsin and others have had to increase their training resource allocations, adding sim time etc to cope with pilots not able to get through a type course in the traditional 7 sessions + check ride. In Canada there isn't the silly experience minimum, but the shortage is starting to be felt as severely as the US. – John K May 19 '18 at 03:45
  • Son will be attending Broward College Aviation, reading shortage is only in Very experienced pilots. – Joseph Butkus May 21 '18 at 16:17