$10,000 offers to get off a plane, CEO apologies and free pizza: Here’s how a massive labor shortage and pent-up demand helped create a chaotic summer for airlines.

Each holiday weekend this summer has ended in chaos for many travelers facing huge numbers of flight cancellations and delays. July Fourth weekend could likely be more of the same. According to sources data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there have already been more airline delays in 2022 than in any year during the previous ten years, and there have also been a lot more flight cancellations. Airlines have offered passengers a variety of criteria, including pizza during delayed flights and $10,000 cash to board empty aircraft. Additionally, the Delta CEO issued an apology to the travelling public for the delays.

More than two years after the COVID pandemic, people have begun to travel again. However, as demand increases, experts say airlines are finding it difficult to meet demand with a pilot labor pool that has not yet recovered from the COVID pandemic’s two-year shrinkage.

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, stated on a quarterly investor call in April that “the pilot shortage for the industry is genuine. And the majority of airlines just won’t be able to fulfil their capacity plans because there aren’t enough pilots, at least not for the ensuing five or more years.

A pandemic-tightened labor supply

When the pandemic stopped the majority of air travel in early 2020 and lockdowns kept millions of Americans and foreign travellers at home due to lockdowns, the airline business suffered severely.

Over the course of 18 months, Congress gave the airline sector three rounds of help totaling $54 billion to keep it afloat. The money was allocated to maintain payrolls so that when limitations were relaxed and travel resumed, there would be an adequate number of pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants.

Tajer claims that as a result, thousands of pilots probably quit their jobs early. According sources to the APA, 715 pilots at American alone have opted for early retirement in 2020.Due to the lower number of available pilots and the increased demand for flights this summer, the pilot labour pool is currently under stress, with airlines bidding against one another for candidates. According to Tajer, other major airlines are starting to hire pilots from American’s regional partners to join their mainline crew.The aviation industry will require a total of 612,000 new pilots along with over a million new maintenance staff and cabin crew over the next 20 years.