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By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – Passenger travel is on the rise at Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA); however, the airport is experiencing a pilot shortage.
A pilot shortage coupled with rising gas prices is putting a bottleneck into travel all across the board.
“Airlines were already talking about pilot shortages prior to COVID, and what has happened in the last two years has only accelerated that issue,” Fran Strebing, Deputy Director at CIRA, told WJBC’s, Scott Miller. “And we’re seeing it across the board really in terms of airports, it’s not just airlines with pilots with a flight crew, and ground crew, in our airport, you know our car rentals, our concessionaires, TSA, everyone is having a little bit of a problem staffing back up to the high levels before COVID; but yet we’re seeing a lot of passengers.”
As the Bloomington airport welcomes back travels, fuel costs are also impacting travel.
“We’re excited and certainly happy to welcome back lots of passengers and looking forward to it, but I guess we’re asking everyone to understand the bigger picture, in what’s going on in the industry and how it’s impacting things.”
According to the Regional Airline Association, regulators certified 4,928 new commercial pilots in 2021, less than half of the 11,526 the group estimated U.S. airlines planned to hire.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].