United Airlines Graduates First Class Of New Pilots: 80% of Them Are Women or People of Color

United is the first major airline to have its own flight school, opening Aviate Academy in December. The airline says 80% of the first class, of which Foster and Arroyo are a part, are women or people of color, because United says it is committed to ensuring that at least half of its Aviate pilot candidates are women or people of color.

Straight up racism.

”Specifically to us at United, we need to look like on the flight deck and in the cabin, we need to look like the customers we serve to represent the communities we fly in and out of,” said United Captain Michael Bonner.

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United says opened its first flight school in January of 2022 -the first in-house flight training operation is the first for any major airline in the United States.

Half of the graduating class was minority women because there is a need for more minority and female commercial pilots. I don’t know about you but I don’t want my pilots chosen by the color of their skin or their genitalia. I want skill and merit hurling those tin cans in the air. The airlines axed the most qualified pilots for being unvaxxed for …. this?

Unvaccinated pilots suing United Airlines for firings.

NPR: Facing of a severe pilot shortage, airlines are ramping up efforts to recruit a new generation of pilots, and in the process, they’re trying to open the cockpit door to women and people of color…..

Commercial pilot tells Tucker how he survived the insane corona mask mandates pic.twitter.com/qUtcqcQKAM

— Camus (@newstart_2024) February 6, 2023

You’re eligible to apply for United Aviate Academy if you:

• Are at least 18 years old
• Are a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident (we do not sponsor foreign visas)
• Have a high school diploma or GED equivalent

Most major commercial airlines require a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university along with these flight ratings: you must have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight time, be over the age of 23 and be able to pass a 1st Class Medical exam.

Was there a lowering of standards to get these people into commercial aviation? Do we really want less qualified pilots flying us because they are more “representative” than white males?

Traditionally, airlines looked to the military to provide a steady stream of qualified candidates. Civilian pilots had to come to the table with thousands of flying hours cobbled together on their own — the Federal Aviation Administration requires a minimum of 1,500 hours of piloting experience to earn an Airline Transport Pilot certificate.

First Class Graduates From United Flight School

By: Russ Niles, AV Web, January 25, 2023:

United Airlines has graduated its first class of new pilots from its Aviate Academy in Arizona. The first class of 51 new pilots, 80 percent of them women or people of color, got their wings earlier this week. United wants to crank out 5,000 new pilots from the school over the next seven years and it wants at least half of them to be female and/or people of color. It called the graduation “an important step towards training the next generation of talented, qualified, and motivated aviators.”

Aviate graduates don’t go directly to the flight deck of an airliner. Many will become instructors at the academy to build the balance of the 1,500 hours they need to become an FO. Others will build time at Embry-Riddle, Purdue and Hampton Universities, which are affiliated with Aviate. United says it will take graduates about six years to finally get in the right seat of a United Express aircraft or take other roles within the organization. United says it needs about 10,000 pilots over the next seven years.