The safety and security of the nation’s air travel system remain in question. On Monday, Southwest Airlines temporarily grounded all of its flights across the nation due to another “software failure” (or firewall failure, to be specific) in its flight control system. But even when the computer systems are functioning and we don’t have vehicles zooming across the runways causing near-collisions, there are still quite a few flights that wind up being delayed or canceled all across the country. The primary driver of that problem is still a lack of pilots for some flights. This is a problem that became significantly worse during and after the pandemic, but for some reason, they still aren’t back to anywhere near full staffing. And according to the Regional Airline Association, things won’t be getting better any time soon. In fact, he is telling a House oversight committee to expect a “tsunami of pilot retirements” in the next few years and there are not enough students in the pipeline to replace them. (CBS News)Read More
A “tsunami” of commercial airline pilot retirements
