Worldwide shortage of pilots good news for students at Embry-Riddle

Daytona Beach, US: As a flight instructor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, with the major airlines wooing pilots, Leonardo Matos can write his own ticket.
“I’ve always wanted to fly internationally and fly bigger planes,” said Matos, who is from Brazil.
Matos, 25, decided to stay on as a flight instructor after his graduation from Embry-Riddle in 2004 when, he said, “things were just starting to pick up.” He has been racking up his flight hours — 2,000 so far — and studying for his master’s degree in software engineering. His investment of time will pay off in the difference between a $22,000 and a $75,000 job offer.
Lisa Scott-Kollar, director of career services at Embry-Riddle said more airlines and companies are coming to campus to recruit pilots. “It’s a really good time,” she said.
But just as the demand for more trained pilots increases, flight schools are complaining they are understaffed as instructors are hired by the airlines.
Embry-Riddle is losing eight to 10 instructors a month out of its 70-instructor flight school, Scott-Kollar said. “It’s a challenge to keep flight instructors here,” she said. “But it opens up opportunities for the new graduates.”
The international pilot shortage is the result of extraordinary air traffic growth in the Persian Gulf, China and India; the rise of lucrative low-cost carriers in Europe and Asia and the sustained recovery of the U.S. airlines.
06/08/07 Melissa Griggs/Daytona Beach News-Journal, US