Colorado Senator Visits Aviation College
Community College aviation program expands to meet career needs.
Visiting Aims Community College’s aviation program in Loveland, Colorado, today, Senator John Hickenlooper noted high demand for pilots and other aviation professionals over the next 20 years.
Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., visited Aims Community College’s Flight Training campus at Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL) in Loveland today (Sept. 3). The college offers two-year degrees in professional pilot careers, air traffic control and unmanned aircraft systems and has plans to add a degree program in airframe & powerplant maintenance, with classes set to start in 2026 at a new Aircraft Maintenance Training Center.
Senator Hickenlooper said, “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 cited the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 as landmark 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 call for a need for 130,000 new pilots over the next 20 years in North America, alone.
