Summary Airlines face a demand for 700,000 pilots in the next two decades due to the 2.4 million aviation personnel needed by 204. Causes of the pilot shortage include lengthy training processes and an imbalance between senior pilots retiring and newcomers.

Boeing underscores the importance of investing in training capacity and early career-development programs to address labor challenges. There has never been a better time to become a pilot in the history of commercial aviation. Stories abound of pilot shortages.

And the stories are not fictional – estimates reach as high as 60,000 pilots needed by the end of this decade. Airlines and corporate operations alike are in a near-continuous search for pilots. In the latest Pilot and Technician Outlook (PTO), Boeing estimates a need for nearly 700,000 pilots over the next two decades.

The flight crew shortage The need for 2.4 million aviation personnel by 2043 674,000 new pilots 980,000 new cabin crew members 716,000 new maintenance technicians The cause of the shortage is multipronged and is exhaustively documented in other articles. Still, the basics are straightforward: it takes considerable time and money to become a pilot, and the number of people committing to the years-long process is not keeping up with, or outpacing, the number of senior pilots exiting the career, often at the end of the mandatory retirement age.

This has led to a supply-and-demand imbalance, causing upward pressure on wages and benefits, the reward for.