Supporting the global commercial fleet will require 602,000 pilots, 610,000 maintenance technicians, and 899,000 flight attendants. Such figures are given in their forecast by Boeing experts.
In its Pilot and Technician job outlook for 2022, Boeing predicts a need for 2.1 million new aviation professionals over the next 20 years to safely support the commercial air travel recovery that has begun and drive growing long-term growth.
The long-term forecast shows that world aviation will have to take new professional personnel from somewhere. This is due both to the recovery of the industry after the pandemic and to the retirement of a whole generation of experienced pilots. To keep the commercial aviation industry afloat, it will need 602,000 pilots, 610,000 technicians, and 899,000 flight attendants over the next two decades.
According to another study by Boeing, the global aircraft fleet is expected to nearly double by 2041 to 47,080 aircraft.
This year, the need for specialists is 3.4 percent more than in 2021. And this is without Russian airlines, which were not included in the forecast due to sanctions prohibiting the export of aircraft manufactured in Western countries.
China, Europe, and North America account for more than half of the total demand for new staff. The fastest growing regions are Africa, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, with all three regions expected to grow by more than 4 percent over the forecast period.
Thus, the issue of organizing highly effective vocational training is very acute.
New digital solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning should include immersive learning programs and virtual learning platforms, experts say. But while there is a noticeable shortage of such institutions throughout the world, they need to be created anew, and very quickly.