Passenger Travel Growth Changes American Airlines’ Training Plans

American Airlines is pausing its plans to centralize pilot training in Texas due to the rapid increase in demand and unprecedented growth in passenger travel since early Spring. In May the airline planned to centralize its mainline pilot training to the GSW Flight Academy in Dallas- Fort Worth, Texas, from the CLT Flight Training Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The decision was made prior to ensure its pilots were better connected to the rest of the American team. It’s Flight Training & Standards group was also in one place to better collaborate, and further standardize and raise the bar on flight training.

Now, after witnessing its single largest increase in leisure travel the airline has ever seen, American is re-examining everything from its flight schedules to pilot hiring and of course, the flight training needed to support it all. This led to the decision to pause its centralization plans. The CLT facility, and the personnel who conduct training there, along with its simulator engineers and administrative support staff, are needed to remain fully intact and operational for the near future to gear up, not wind down its training capacity.