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Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., visited Aims Community College’s Flight Training campus at Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL) in Loveland on September 3. The college offers two-year degrees in professional pilot careers, air traffic control, and unmanned aircraft systems. It plans to add a degree program in airframe and powerplant maintenance, with classes set to start in 2026 at a new Aircraft Maintenance Training Center.
Senator Hickenlooper commented on the current shortage of pilots affecting major airlines. “In the past few years, we’ve been hearing a lot about the shortage of pilots at the major airlines. It’s been hard for them to keep enough pilots eligible and have a mandatory retirement at [age] 65. We’ve got to push to get more pilots trained and ready to make sure we don’t have bottlenecks in our transportation system.”
Hickenlooper highlighted the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 as significant legislation. “The FAA hadn't been reauthorized since 2018,” he said. “We finally got reauthorized this year, but that means there's a backlog. And some of the challenges weren't getting addressed.” He noted that projections indicate a need for 130,000 new pilots over the next 20 years in North America alone.
