Southwest Airlines says the industry, as a whole, is seeing a 50-percent decrease in the number of students who want to become pilots.
Still, the Dallas-based airline is on track to hire more than 700 new pilots this year alone.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines says regional carriers, like Envoy, are feeling the pinch the most, but that's where American typically gets many of its pilots.
It can cost up to $400,000 to get the education, licensing and flight time needed to reach a major airline, something Allie Hoyt knows first hand.
Aviation is in Hoyt's blood.
"My dad took me for my first small plane ride when I was 8-years-old," she said. "We would go to Sonic and get milkshakes and go sit and watch airplanes take off at the airport."
And now that she can fly, it's a dream come true.
"The magic of it kinda speaks for itself," she added. "Once you experience it, you get it. It's hard to describe."
However, the number of women who do get it, is incredibly low.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, of the roughly 165,000 major airline pilots in the U.S., fewer than 7,000 are women.
"That's up from what it was 20 years ago," said Chrissi Culver, with a grin.
Culver is an air traffic controller and president of the North Texas chapter of Women in Aviation.
"It's always been all men and so to get people to think, 'hey, you can have a girl as your airline captain', it's something that society needs to come around and think about, accept and move on," she added.
Tammie Jo Shults, the pilot who safely landed Southwest Flight 1380 last month, after an engine blew and knocked out a window, is a woman.
Shults is also a Captain, which is even more rare.
If you add up every female captain at Southwest and American, it's about 300 women. You can fit all of them on a Boeing 777 and still have empty seats.
"That doesn't discourage me. It fuels the fire because I enjoy a good fight," Hoyt said.
Hoyt trades time as a mechanic for time in the air, to offset the cost of getting her certifications.
"You could easily spend six figures trying to get to the level where you're flying for the airlines," she added.
The starting pay for a pilot flying for a regional carrier is roughly $55,000.
The goal is to become a top-end pilot at a major airline making about $300,000 a year.
The military has long been seen as a more cost-effective way to get flight time, but that avenue is shrinking, too, as they start to use more drones.
To help make flight school more accessible to everyone, American Airlines has a new Cadet Academy.
To bring more pilots onboard, Southwest Airlines has sped up the hiring process. What used to take six weeks is now done in three weeks or less.
Plus, they're now accepting pilots with an associates degree, instead of a traditional four-year degree.
To reach more women, Southwest has partnered with other organizations to encourage young women to pursue aviation through the GenHERation program.
"I am close, so close," Hoyt said, eluding to the 45 more flight hours she needs to get her foot in the door.
"I have elementary school drawings of me in a pilot's uniform," she said with a smile.
Her career is just taking off. She's fulfilling a dream, while also inspiring others.
"An airplane doesn't care what gender you are," she said. "That airplane's going to fly exactly the same way."
