Local News

Pilot Shortage Brings Bigger Planes To RDM

REDMOND, OR -- Amid a widespread pilot shortage, airlines don’t plan to add more flights to existing routes any time soon. What passengers can expect are fuller flights and bigger planes.

"We’re not seeing any decrease in frequency but, instead of adding maybe a fourth flight to - say - Salt Lake, we’ll have three but one of those will be larger," Redmond Airport Director Zach Bass tells KBND News, "Most of our fleet has been regional aircraft, so around 75 seats. What we’re looking at, especially over summer, is an upgauge in aircraft to what they call ‘mainline,’ which is almost 175 seats. So, those big 737s,  those A320s, Salt Lake, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, LA. And again, that’s a product of growth in the region; but it’s also a product of we don’t have enough pilots."

Bass says a new local program could help ease the shortage, "In the last year, Alaska Airlines actually contracted with Hillsboro Air to be their primary ‘pipeline feeder’ for training pilots for Alaska Airlines. So, almost 250 people, once it gets fully up and running, will be training out of Redmond to become Alaska Airlines pilots." But, that training takes time, "What we’re being told, we won’t see the end of this pilot, crew crunch until at least 2024." 


 

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