United Airlines has launched an in-house aircraft technician apprenticeship program as it readies for an influx of new aircraft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The program, called Calibrate, will have a goal of training 1,000 workers at more than a dozen locations by 2026, with at least half of those individuals being women or people of color.\u00a0<\/p>\n
United is founding Calibrate in partnership with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union and the FAA. The inaugural class for the 36-month program, comprised of Teamsters-represented United employees, begins next week.<\/p>\n
The airline will open the program up to external candidates in early 2023. Participants in the program will be paid as they learn, saving them the cost of paying for a technician school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The initiation of the program comes with United expecting to hire 7,000 maintenance technicians by 2026, in part to handle upkeep on the 270 narrowbody planes the airline ordered last year for delivery by that time.<\/p>\n
The initiation also coincides with an ongoing shortage of aircraft mechanics across the U.S., though United said it doesn’t have a technician shortfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In this May’s edition of the Aeronautical Repair Station Association’s (ARSA) annual industry survey, 72% of participating companies cited difficulty with finding or retaining workers as the most significant threat to the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ARSA estimated there are up to 20,000 vacant technician jobs nationwide in an industry that employs 182,000 people.<\/p>\n
Calibrate will launch in Houston and then expand to more than a dozen locations, United said, including San Francisco and Orlando.<\/p>\n