Skip to footer

American Airlines will hire 2,500 pilots

American Airlines expects to hire 2,500 over the next five years as it ramps up international flights, the company said Wednesday. American Airlines currently has 8,000 active pilots.

|
Mary Altaffer/AP/File
In this August 2012 file photo, American Airlines airplanes are parked at their gates at JFK International airport in New York. American Airlines announced Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 that it aims to hire 2,500 pilots over the next five years.
  • By David Koenig AP Airlines writer

| Dallas

The CEO of American Airlines said the company expects to hire 2,500 pilots over the next five years as it ramps up international flights.

"The new American will be doing even more international flying, providing greater opportunities for career advancement and increased income for our people," AMR Corp. CEO Thomas Horton said Wednesday in a letter to employees. AMR is American'sparent company.

American currently has about 8,000 active pilots.

Horton's letter was issued the same day that American announced it would start new international routes next year. American, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, seeks to capitalize on growth in international travel, especially among high-fare corporate travelers.

The airline wants to show that it can grow on its own, while US Airways is pushing for a merger as the only way for both to compete against larger rivals United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

While the airline plans to hire more pilots, it's lost more staff than it wants to bring on. The company had 14,000 pilots in early 2001 after buying TWA, according to Gregg Overman, a spokesman for the pilots' union, the Allied Pilots Association.

"International routes are high-paying jobs, so that's welcome," Overman said of Horton's promise of new jobs. "Forecasts of growth are better than forecasts that the airline will shrink, but (Horton's prediction) would just be making up a bit of that lost ground" since 2001.

Overman said American has 650 pilots on furlough who would be rehired first and 500 to 600 pilots who are expected to hit the mandatory retirement age of 65 by 2020.

Here are some new international routes announced Wednesday that the company is banking on for growth.

— Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Lima, Peru, beginning April 2. American already flies between Miami and Lima.

— DFW to Seoul, beginning May 9.

— Chicago to Dusseldorf, Germany, starting April 11.

— New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Dublin, starting June 12.

AMR's chief commercial officer, Virasb Vahidi, said the routes should appeal to business travelers and strengthen ties with partnerairlines such as Japan Airlines and British Airways.

American will also add domestic flights using regional jets that are smaller than the planes typically operated by American. Those routes, starting Feb. 14, will include:

— DFW and Chicago's O'Hare Airport to Columbia, Mo.

— DFW to Beaumont, Texas.

— DFW to Fargo, N.D. American currently flies to Fargo from O'Hare.

American said it would begin selling tickets for the new flights on Nov. 4.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to American Airlines will hire 2,500 pilots
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1025/American-Airlines-will-hire-2-500-pilots
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe