Shortage Of Pilots In Military Addressed By Senate: Doug Jones

WASHINGTON, DC - A perhaps unknown looming crisis in the country stems from a shortage oif pilots in the military. Sen. Doug Jones has sponsored a bill this week to address that shortage, although the pilot shortage is not just limited to the military.

Jones and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have introduced a bill that seeks to address the shortage of pilots in military service by authorizing the secretaries of each military department to create pilot scholarship programs for qualified members of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

The Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited (CAVU) Act is named after the well-known pilots’ acronym, frequently used by President George H.W. Bush to describe ideal conditions and promising opportunities.

This bipartisan legislation seeks to address both the shortage of pilots in military service and the lack of diversity among pilot ranks – according to the Air Force, fewer than 10 percent of pilots are minorities and fewer than six percent are women. The scholarships this bill supports would encourage early exploration of careers in aviation within the JROTC ranks, which are substantively more diverse, with minorities and women making up 58 percent and 40 percent of JROTC participants, respectively.

“Young people are being asked to choose career paths earlier and earlier, and for many - especially young women and minorities - the field of aviation seems out of reach,” Jones said. “This bill works to address that issue and to open up the world of aviation to all of the rising stars in our JROTC programs.”

“The pilot shortage is a serious crisis impacting our military, and I commend the Air Force for creating additional opportunities for JROTC students to pursue their pilot certificates. As the same problem persists across the other branches, our bill would allow each service’s secretary to create similar scholarship programs that would encourage aspiring students to pursue flight school or attend one of our service academies,” Cotton said.

The pilot shortage is a problem that has reached commercial and private aviation as well. Bo Andrews, CEO of Southern Sky Aviation in Birmingham, said placing more pilots in the workforce is of serious importance to the industry. Southern Sky, which launched last year, provides a variety of aviation services, including flight training.

"The pilot shortage is becoming an increasingly serious issue with each passing day. In an ideal world we would have measures in place to combat the shortage before travelers start to see increased fees or cancelled routes because of the shortage," Andrews said. "Southern Sky Aviation has an excellent training program in place and we are hopeful that we can work with both the public and private sectors in the near future to find solutions that will incentivize not only young people but also people already in the workforce to start their training to become a pilot."