Arizona-based Mesa Airlines offers interest-free loans to pilots

Phoenix-based Mesa Airlines is looking to solve the pilot shortages that have plagued the travel industry by offering interest-free loans to pilots who need more flight hours to get their licenses.

The regional airline chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein told FOX Business's Stuart Varney about the initiative on Varney Co. Monday, saying that the shortage must be resolved soon.

He said that we're in a position where we need to do something to alleviate the very severe pilot shortage that's affecting the entire industry and ultimately affecting the consumer.

Ornstein described the shortage as the worst he has seen in his forty-year history of working in aviation.

He said that pilots need 1,500 hours to become certified to fly for a major airline.

He said it was up from the original 250 where a pilot would receive its commercial license.

Ornstein said the pilot shortage issue has been building since the 2010 Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act took effect in 2013.

He said that this regulation doesn't exist in any other country in the world, and we're the only place where there's a shortage.

He told Varney that the pilots participating in the program already have their license and are working to be certified to fly larger aircraft.

He stressed that the loss of pilots is going to have a big impact on regional aviation as a result of the loss of pilots.