Several airlines in the United States have had to slow down their pilot hiring recently, and now United does the same – because of Boeing.
In the last few days, United has been in the news mainly for a series of somewhat unusual incidents. But a different and perhaps more serious issue is also impacting the airline and its longer-term operations.
United has been pursuing multiple pilot hiring initiatives lately, but recent Boeing issues could interfere with them. The airline started its own “Unite” aviation academy, to replace pilots who retired early in the pandemic.
However, a number of Boeing issues, going back almost a year, have been affecting United and its pilot hiring capacity. We saw how two separate issues with Spirit AeroSystems slowed down the production rate of Boeing’s 737 last year.
Then in January this year, the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout of a 737 MAX-9 had more knock-on…
