Today, a pilot coming out of school is going to fly firefighting planes or small planes. He can also be a flight instructor. However, there is so much pressure on pilots, there is less and less access to these small companies. So, in the future, fewer and fewer young pilots will be able to do the number of flying hours needed to get into the big airlines.
As for solutions, we've been talking about them for years. It's not simple. I don't think there's a quick fix that can be put in place to address this. As for reducing the number of hours required to be allowed to fly or to obtain an airline transport pilot licence, or ATPL, I don't think that's a solution either. We need to have access to pilots who can do their hours in small companies. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer small companies that allow young pilots to gain experience.