JetBlue Is Turning Supermarket Clerks and Baggage Handlers Into Pilots
- No experience necessary as airline expands applicant pool
- U.S. carriers look to fill labor pipeline as shortage looms
Ground operations members unload baggage from a JetBlue aircraft on the tarmac at Long Beach Airport in California.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
What do a supermarket clerk, an airline baggage handler and a heavy-equipment operator have in common? They’re among the first participants in JetBlue’s new program to turn people with little or no flight experience into pilots.
The initial six recruits begin the second phase of training Monday, after three weeks studying meteorology, aerodynamics, aircraft systems and the like. They’ll now spend about seven months in Arizona to begin flight training at CAE Oxford Aviation Academy. If successful -- and if they can handle the $125,000 price tag -- they should become first officers at JetBlue Airways Corp. in 2020.