Jacksonville University aviation program grows to meet projected pilot shortage (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — At 20 years old, Grace Whitney and Harper Meehan have already flown through nine states after competing in a nationwide air race, traveling more than 2,600 miles, on top of the training they’ve already done to become commercial airline pilots.
The two are Jacksonville University students majoring in aviation management and flight operations and are a part of a growing program for the university.
About 335 students are expected to be in the program, with about 290 of them signed up to be fliers, said Matt Tuohy, director of the School of Aviation and Military Sciences, Davis College of Business and Technology.
Students can also learn other roles in the industry, such as being a mechanic.
At JU, the students are able to fly out of Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport and train using simulators on campus, along with taking other classes in preparation to join the airline industry.
Meehan and Whitney have also been able to receive support for going to a national competition for women, the Air Race Classic. They said a donor helped fund their participation in the race.
“It feels a bit unreal. I guess I didn’t expect myself to be where I am with this experience,” Meehan said.
Whitney said JU has accelerated her progress toward becoming a commercial pilot.
“I didn’t think I’ll be graduating a year early until just recently,” Whitney said. “So it’s kind of crazy that I’ve been able to get this far in just two years. But I do think that JU’s helped me with that, with their flight training, being able to fly like more than three days a week.”
As the airline industry in the U.S. is in the throes of a national pilot shortage, JU’s program has nearly doubled in size, Tuohy said.
“I would love to take credit for that … but it’s all the industry, and it’s all smart students realizing the opportunities that are out there,” Tuohy said.
Long-term demand for new aviation personnel is strong, according to Boeing‘s 2024 Pilot and Technician Outlook. At least 674,000 new pilots, 123,000 in North America, are needed to keep the global commercial fleet up in the air over the next 20 years.
“Driven by aviation traffic trending above pre-pandemic levels, personnel attrition and commercial fleet growth, the demand for aviation personnel continues to rise,” Chris Broom, vice president of commercial training solutions for Boeing Global Services, said in a release announcing the findings.
Tuohy also said the clock is ticking for many pilots already in the industry.
“The pilots that are in the industry today aren’t getting any younger; they still face mandatory retirement, and again, I don’t know whether that’s going to get changed or not,” Tuohy said. “There’s a lot of political factors that get involved in that. But even if it gets changed, they’re not going to raise the mandatory retirement age to 90.”
Decreased military enlistment has also shrunk a major labor pool for the airline industry, the program director added.
“The airline industry has been struggling with how to get new pilots for at least the last 10 years that I’ve been back,” Tuohy said. “The military got smaller, the industry got bigger and now instead of being a small minority of civilian-trained airline pilots in the industry, there’s a huge percentage. And there’s a defined pathway through the regional airline system and that sort of thing.”
For Meehan and Whitney, JU has opened doors.
“I think my confidence has grown a lot since coming to JU and taking all these classes and flying as much as I have,” Whitney said.
And the two are also focused on creating an environment to support more female pilots at JU. Meehan is the president of the Women in Aviation club at JU, and Whitney is the vice president.
“I think coming in, a lot of people are kind of nervous to get involved with those things and also nervous to ask questions,” Whitney said. “But we try to make it as comfortable as possible.”
Participating in these extracurriculars is important in preparing for the future, Meehan said, who highlighted the Women in Aviation as a great opportunity for networking.
“I think it’s pretty crucial,” she said. “You get to meet so many connections, not only the other pilots that you’re meeting, but they sometimes have booths where you can talk to the different airlines while you’re at these events, especially at the Women in Aviation conference, it’s all regional and major airlines there who you can talk to.”