[Dalewyn]

It's not just startups.

Airline companies of all sizes are really hesitant to hire women pilots, because training and certifying pilots is fucking expensive in both money and time. They really do not want to invest in a new pilot only for her (or him, for that matter) to say "Yeah, I'm quitting/taking leave for my new baby." and have to write off their investment that could have gone to another would-be pilot who would fly with them for many decades.

[zeroCalories]

Yes, but that's more of an accounting problem. Airlines will either have to increase ticket prices, or the state could insure them, or maybe non of that matters because there is a critical shortage of pilots right now.

For an early stage startup the potential loss of an important person is incalculable. 3 month delay could put you irrecoverably behind in the market, it could cause you to run out of funding as your efficiency tanks. Treating it statistically the same way you would for airlines does not work for startups that are fundamentally about being an exception to statistics.

[shiroiuma]

There's no shortage of pilots, just like there's never a shortage of any type of employee--companies just don't want to pay enough.

For pilots, airlines refuse to hire people with zero experience and pay for them to go through pilot school: they expect people to pay for all that on their own: get their licenses and enough hours of flying time to be eligible for working for the big airlines. Guess what? That costs a lot of money and not many people want to do it any more. If the airlines really want to hire more pilots, then they need to invest in their training, all the way from zero experience. Of course, they don't want to do that, so they whine and complain.