Many people fail to become doctors and or lose their license for various reasons. So, it’s a huge gamble in the US that can easily cause massive financial issues.
What's interesting is that student pilots face those same issues now.
To go from ab initio to an airline pilot role, the cost is in the area of $200,000 - $250,000 now and there's a lot of ways to end up not getting picked for an airline job.
Entry salary is up from $18,000 to $40,000 or so now, but that's not much improvment considering the cost of training.
Part of the issue is the 1,500 hour experience rule, which is government-imposed. (There's an option for 1,200 hours, but then your major has to be airline-focused., preventing them from wisely diversifying their career options.)
US airlines are in a bind because their policy is to not subsidize initial training, but cannot fly without pilots.
And students are getting sticker-shock, and thinking about other careers with better ROI and certainty.
Yea, but that’s only half the story. Military pilots get training for free, which is vastly more and has massively suppressed airline pilot salaries. There are a few other approaches that can similarly reduce costs, but sticker shock is huge.
A friend of mine flies island-hopping cargo/shipping in the Puerto Rico area which is a common route to make money, live well, and get enough flight time to land a commercial pilot job in the future.
