Why Are Airlines Hiring So Many Pilots?

Airlines are on a hiring binge for pilots to combat the chaos at U.S. airports. Due to the pandemic, numerous pilots retired and no new pilots were trained. Now, some airlines are tripling the average salary of a pilot to boost applications. At Piedmont Airlines, they're churning out 40 new pilots every month. These pilots-in-training already logged 1,500 hours of flight time. However, they must go through five weeks of classroom instruction and 40 hours in a simulator.