The seven largest US airlines earned $295 million in net income in 2011, but excluding American, the remaining six majors earned a healthy $2.27 billion net profit.

AMR’s full-year 2011 revenue rose 8.2% over 2010 to $23.98 billion, outpaced by a 14.5% increase in expenses to $25.03 billion. AA is trying through Chapter 11 to reduce labor costs by $1.25 billion annually.

Overall, the seven major US airline companies’ full-year 2011 revenue grew 10.1% compared to 2010 to $134.68 billion. That followed a 14.8% revenue rise in 2010 over 2009. Expenses in 2011 increased by 13% year-over-year to $130.08 billion and operating profit was $4.6 billion, down 35.8% from operating income of $7.17 billion in 2010.

“Please consider Part 135 Cargo as an intriguing career step. Contrary to popular belief, the Part 135 cargo pilots are some of the most gifted, compliant, and intelligent pilots in the aviation profession. These individuals not only talk the talk, they walk the walk. They are stepping into the same airspace as their fellow pilots; yet they are by themselves, without too much sophisticated automation, without someone to help them with their workload, and many times without magenta lines to follow. What they do have is a big smile on their face as they prove their determination to complete a flight safely and compliantly. They wait patiently and excitedly for a chance to takeoff into conditions that they once avoided due to lack of experience or equipment capabilities. They are satisfied when another flight comes to a safe conclusion after breaking out at the decision height. These are 135 cargo pilots!

These pilots have the knowledge and skills to safely fly in the same National Airspace System and they are having the time of their lives! They’re not just a number on the seniority list, they are very well known by their company management. They passed through a screening process that doesn’t allow for anything less than the best and the brightest. They’ve chosen to join the air cargo industry for many reasons; stability, regular schedules, higher pay, and a safety record that continues to prove that there is indeed “One level of Safety” that is advocated by the FAA. They are more qualified and experienced than entry-level regional pilots because they possess 1200 hours total time with 500 hours cross-country, 100 hours night and 75 hours instrument. Following training, they continue building that holy grail of flight time – Pilot In Command!

OK; so what can you DO now to prepare yourself for the myriad opportunities, including 135 cargo? If you’re currently a flight instructor, KEEP INSTRUCTING and seek out opportunities to strengthen your IFR knowledge and skills by passing on this knowledge to instrument students. Do not hesitate to instruct in flight training devices as this builds invaluable situational awareness of airspace, clearances, and pilot performance.

Being a CFI – AIM at a large flight school prepares you for the structure, oversight, and standardization of flight departments in all areas of aviation. It also affords the opportunity to train and fly consistently by the sheer number of students that are enrolled. As an active, seasoned CFI, you coordinate and choreograph each flight while you act as a safety pilot and instructor. As a seasoned CFI, you’re better able to anticipate and carryout last minute ATC changes, notice nuance changes in weather that might foretell of dramatic changes to flight plans, prepare for your student to (unintentionally) threaten your career or (even worse!) life by making silly mistakes which you’ve seen before. Remember that just because your hands aren’t on the flight controls does not mean that you’re not flying. “Hands On” flying is a required skill, no doubt, but flying is above all a mental game and CFIs do it best.

All of these skills take some time to build, but they are worth it because these are the skills that will be used for the rest of your aviation career. If you’re a student, private, commercial, and/or instrument pilot, consider your next step to be as a flight instructor for the reasons stated above. This is the most valuable learning experience for our pilots. There is a big reason why Part 135 minimum flight experience is 1200 hours: it is assumed that you’ve gained diverse experiences and learned tremendous lessons along the way. With such high standards, and so much at stake, why would pilots short-change themselves by simply putting flight hours in their logbook without some real experience to go with it?

Think carefully about the many opportunities that will be available and choose the one that makes you happiest! Good luck to everyone and Hang On! We’re going into the most exciting aviation times sooner than you think!”

Sheri Hudson
Pilot Recruiter for Ameriflight, LLC.

Today ATP was visited by Sheri Hudson who is the lead recruiter for Ameriflight, the leading Part 135 air cargo company in the United States. Sheri visited us with a very interesting message that I wanted to share with you. Today I am posting the first part of Sheri’s comments, with the second half posted tomorrow.

“It will come as no surprise to aviation industry watchers that there will be many, many opportunities presenting themselves in the near future.

What is happening that precipitates these opportunities? The two main factors that will be affecting aviation professionals are 1) the new rule for minimum flight experience changes the 121 regulations to require crewmembers to have accumulated at least 1500 hours total time (currently all that is required for SIC is Commercial/Multi-Engine/Instrument rating which can be gained at less than 200 hours!) and 2) the mandatory retirement age of 65 years will be capturing many, many pilots that elected to continue flying past the previous retirement age of 60.

o What does that mean to you? The changes mentioned above will create pressures on the largest pilot employers, the airlines, to train and employ thousands of pilots each year beginning in 2013. These pilots will come from various venues; regional air carriers, air taxi (Part 135), corporate, charter, military, and many others.

o OK, what does that mean to you now? It means that there will be many, many diverse opportunities to choose between. Which is best? The one that most prepares you for your goal AND satisfies as many of your life’s priorities as possible. Many of today’s flight students and instructors are led to believe that the way to any “decent” job in aviation is through the regional airlines but that simply is just one way of moving your aviation career forward and it is not for everyone!

Please consider Part 135 Cargo as an intriguing career step. Contrary to popular belief, the Part 135 cargo pilots are some of the most gifted, compliant, and intelligent pilots in the aviation profession. These individuals not only talk the talk, they walk the walk. They are stepping into the same airspace as their fellow pilots; yet they are by themselves, without too much sophisticated automation, without someone to help them with their workload, and many times without magenta lines to follow. What they do have is a big smile on their face as they prove their determination to complete a flight safely and compliantly. They wait patiently and excitedly for a chance to takeoff into conditions that they once avoided due to lack of experience or equipment capabilities. They are satisfied when another flight comes to a safe conclusion after breaking out at the decision height. These are 135 cargo pilots!”

The second part of Sheri’s comments will be posted tomorrow on PilotJobs.com

I went to Atlanta to meet with ExpressJet to sign a new agreement between ExpressJet and ATP which guarantees ATP Graduates a preferred interview with ExpressJet upon successful completion of our Regional Jet Standards Certification Program. The agreement is already posted on ATPFlightschool.com for all to see.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival at the ASA’s home hangar at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport was that all of the “ASA” signs were coming down and they were being replaced by the airline’s new name which is ExpressJet. As you all know, SkyWest purchased both ASA and ExpressJet and merged the two airlines together. It was decided after much internal conversation that the name Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) didn’t really encompass all that the newly merged airline is aspiring to do so they switched to the time honored brand of ExpressJet.

Once inside the enormous building that formerly served as the Headquarters for Delta Airlines, I was once again impressed with the ExpressJet recruiting staff and how much thought and research that they put into recruiting the next generation of ExpressJet Pilots. A large amount of research is done on the data gathered from past training classes and once it is all sorted out by the recruiting department’s researchers, reports are generated to clearly show the trends being exhibited by new recruits into ExpressJet’s flight department. Identifying these trends is not only useful to ExpressJet’s training department, but to the recruiting department also so that better informed hiring decisions can be made by Recruiters. I have to add that it was good to see in these reports, although it wasn’t surprising to me, that ATP Graduates ranked at the top of the scale with the least amount of additional sim sessions or other training required to successfully complete new hire training when compared to other sources of pilot recruits.

An exciting tidbit of information that I learned was that ExpressJet intends to hire over 400 new pilots in 2012. I saw quite a few aviators waiting patiently to begin the testing and interviewing process at ExpressJet while there, and I was told that ExpressJet hopes to interview 15 pilots every other day to fill new hire classes already scheduled and running this year. They will have to keep that pace if they hope to meet their recruiting goals for the year.

One thing that I didn’t expect to hear while visiting in Atlanta was that ExpressJet will be retrieving their retired EMB 135s from the desert storage lots they were “retired” to and they will be brought back into service to fly the line for ExpressJet. I’m sure that is not the most surprising thing that we will hear from the regional airline industry this year.

BTS said Continental Airlines reported 14.7% more full-time employees, the largest increase among the network carriers. US Airways followed with a 3.5% increase.

According to the report, low-cost carriers (LCCs) reported 5.9% increases in full-time employment over the year-ago month. Five LCCs—Virgin America (up 18.4%), Spirit Airlines (up 13.5%), Southwest Airlines (up 7.4%), JetBlue Airways (up 7.2%) and AirTran Airways (up 1.8%)—reported workforce increases. Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air reported decreases of 6.3% and 3.2%, respectively.

Regional carriers reported a 0.6% increase in full-time employment in November 2011 compared to the year-ago month. Among the 17 regional carriers, 11 reported increased employment levels. Shuttle America (up 21.3%) and GoJet (up 16.6%) reported the largest percentage increases.

The company’s fourth-quarter net income rose to $425 million compared with $19 million a year earlier when it was hit with charges from early debt repayment and consolidation of airport operations.

Delta’s revenue rose 8 percent to $8.4 billion in the final three months of 2011 while enduring a 5-percent rise in fuel expenses on its mainline operations.

Delta’s 2011 profit totaled $854 million, 44 percent higher than in 2010. Revenue rose 11 percent to $35 billion. The Atlanta-based airline has turned a profit two years in a row.

“It is particularly noteworthy that these results were posted during a period in which our operations grew rapidly,” Dunkerley said in a statement.

Without charges for buying 15 Boeing 717 planes previously under lease agreements, and for a new way of accounting for fuel expenses that more closely reflects next cash outflow, Hawaiian said its adjusted net income for the year would be $43.2 million.

Dunkerley told investors on a conference call that revenue from its international routes tripled over the past year.

“Not only are we pleased by the success of our Tokyo and Osaka, routes but we are also confident enough in the demand for our Sydney and Seoul flights to offer daily frequencies in both markets,” he said.

“We’re pleased that the positive momentum that started in mid-2011 continued through the year-end,” Dunkerley said, adding “2012 is going to be an eventful year for our company as we prepare and then launch service to new destinations.”

JetBlue said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit nearly tripled on a sharp increase in passengers and milder weather that allowed the New York airline to run many more flights on schedule.

Net income rose to $23 million in the three months ended Dec. 31. That’s up from $8 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 22 percent to $1.15 billion. Higher ticket prices and fees drove its yield up 11 percent. The 2011 quarter compares with the last quarter of 2010, when a big winter storm that walloped its bases in New York and Boston cost JetBlue $30 million.

JetBlue Airways Corp. said traffic in the last three months of the year rose 11 percent as it added new destinations and flights.

JetBlue’s results echo earnings growth at most other U.S. airlines. Delta Air Lines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. both reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, capping two straight years of annual profits.

JetBlue ended the year with a fleet of 169 aircraft. It expects to take delivery of 11 planes this year.

American Airlines, which was left out of the latest round of consolidation, filed for bankruptcy protection in November after losing billions of dollars in recent years. The carrier hopes to be able to pare its costs during the restructuring process and emerge as a leaner, profitable carrier. That prospect has also set off renewed talk about a possible bid for American Airlines by one of its competitors, perhaps Delta or US Airways.

“What the industry has done in three years is remarkable,” said William S. Swelbar, a research engineer in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s International Center for Air Transportation. “Airlines seem to be much more stable than I can remember in decades. Consolidation is having a significant impact on pricing, no doubt. And the industry has rid itself of unprofitable routes.”

Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways also posted a profit in the last quarter. JetBlue is one of the industry’s few exceptions in raising its capacity in 2011 — the airline increased seats by 10 percent in the fourth quarter, with new flights to the Caribbean and to Boston. It expects to keep adding more flights to its schedule this year.

The airlines said they expected these gains to continue in the first quarter of 2012.

“If anything, the new year has seen a step-up in business demand,” the US Airways president, Scott Kirby, said on Wednesday. “The pricing environment remains strong and the industry is successfully recovering high fuel prices.”

US president Scott Kirby said the carrier is benefiting from a “robust pricing and demand environment” with metrics trending up. “The new year has started out strong both for business and leisure demand,” he reported. “Business demand in particular remains quite strong … The pricing environment also remains strong and we’re successfully recovering fuel costs.”

Delta Air Lines (DL) reported 2011 net income of $854 million, up 44% over a net profit of $593 million in 2010.

Annual revenue rose 11% year-over-year to $35.12 billion while expenses heightened 12% to $33.14 billion, producing an operating profit of $1.98 billion, down 11%. DL “fully covered our fuel cost increase with higher revenues,” president Ed Bastian said in a statement. “Our revenue momentum has continued into 2012, and we are currently seeing our January consolidated passenger unit revenues up 15% year-over-year.”

DL’s fourth-quarter net income was $425 million, significantly widened over a $19 million net profit in the prior-year period. Fourth-quarter revenue was up 8% to $8.34 billion. It said the three-month period was its most profitable December quarter ever.

Despite the volatility in fuel prices, fiscal 2011 ended on a positive note for the low-cost airlines compared to industry movers like Delta and United Continental, mainly due to their low-cost structure.

At a juncture where major air carriers are struggling with surging operating costs, domestic airlines like JetBlue have also shown greater efficiency in managing its cost structure.

JetBlue will defer the delivery of 8 airbuses from 2014 and 2015 to 2017, convert 30 A320 delivery positions to A321s, and purchase 40 fuel-efficient A320neos beginning 2018 that will be allocated within its capital expenditure over a long-term period. Given these changes and an average fleet age of only 5.9 years, we believe that JetBlue remains one of the youngest carriers to possess the most fuel efficient fleet among its peers.

The company is also expanding its network footprint in two major growth regions, Boston in New York and the Caribbean in Latin America. JetBlue has consolidated its position as the largest airline serving Boston Logan International Airport by connecting approximately 42 destinations. Given more demand in these regions, JetBlue plans to add flights to existing and new routes, thus enhancing JetBlue’s network.