Today
Even today, African Americans represent a relatively small portion of aviation professionals. According to some estimates, they make up only about seven percent of all U.S. aviation professionals. There could be multiple reasons for this. In some cases, the specialized training required for aviation careers can be costly. The full cost of the years of training required to become an airline pilot, for example, can be as high as $50,000. Also, aviation careers remain under the radar for many. Relatively few people have exposure to aviation in their day-to-day lives—as compared to other fields, such as computer sciences, journalism, law, or medicine. Even so, African Americans who have entered aviation careers have done well. They are employed by private firms, the military and commercial airlines.
American Airlines has one of the most diverse flight and maintenance crews in the industry.