Yes , You heard it right ! the Question is Targetted !! we are talking about Dearth of pilots !!!
Thousands of pilots have taken the retirement or ended their careers.
Military Pilots have lost the interest in commercial aviation.
Thousands of Pilots' Licences have expired, Log books lacking recency .
Hiring, training, simulator logs will take substantial time to match upto the travel demand.
Air travel is picking up for this Summer and we might expect a 90% of air travel recovery by 2022 Summer though there might be some slow down during the winters .
Now, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is making air travel of vaccinated mass easier to Air travel .
CDC announced on Friday , fully vaccinated travelers are less likely to get and spread COVID-19, and so, it says, those travelers do not need to get tested before or after travel unless their destination requires it, nor do they need to self-quarantine.
Indications are clear , we are going to witness rebound of air travel in near future . But question remians , are airline and operators ready to cope up with the travel demand ?
They had fired or retired tens of thousands of workers and Cockpit crews during entire year of 2020 and worst part is training and hiring programs were frozen to control losses
An acute scene is awaiting, when it comes to hiring pilots because airlines say they’ll have to hire thousands of them. But those pilots may not be in the pipeline, when thousands of them have already taken retirement .
- One of the fact is that, airlines and operators used to recruit a lot of pilots from the military, But this time, military pilots have seen the uncertainty in the lives of commercial pilots due to pandemic, that added to the stresses , after years of airline bankruptcies and mergers, fewer of them are joining commercial fleets.
The military pilots looked at the commercial airlines and said, ‘You know, the bloom is off that rose. I’m going to stay in the military and complete my career as a pilot here.
Another factor is that many airline pilots who were already close to retirement age just went for it when the pandemic hit.
“Their employers / companies made it easier for them , either an economic opportunity or an economic imperative to retire early,”
In fact, about a thousand pilots retired from United Airlines alone since September. And on Thursday, United told employees it was hiring 300 pilots immediately.
Yes, this factor is for real , airlines have to take this seriously, Simulators have to work continuously .
Many of the Pilots' licences could not be renewed due to pandemic and now they lack flying hours to do so.
Civil aviation Regulators will be very particular on the recency of Pilots, as they do not wish to see rusty hands to take off an aircraft. So, challenge is real !
Readying a pilot to fly your commercial aircrafts takes time - substantial time , no magic works here ! and filling all open jobs will be tough .
Starting from scratch ! It’s not always easy or affordable to become a pilot, and with pandemic, the career choice has taken a hit among the Youth , who saw the pain of pilots Flying Super Jumbos, and now driving City buses.
Apart from education, there is training, logging hours of flight time , and the airline industry needs start early, to pick up with training programs and hiring that paused in the pandemic, if they wish to meet the travel demand post pandemic.
