The world will need 612,000 pilots and 886,000 cabin crew

The aviation industry is truly taking a stronger-than-expected rebound after two years of lock-downs. As more people are eager to travel, the demand continues to surge. It is even forecasted to surpass pre-pandemic levels. A forecast from Boeing shows that the world will need 612,000 pilots and 886,000 cabin crew in the next 18 years.

The Asia-Pacific region alone will need 108,000 pilots and 178,000 flight attendants between 2021 to 2040! That is indeed a huge hole to fill in as the travel demand continues to spike!

In fact, we are again feeling the effects of this spike in the Philippines. Notice that our local airlines continue to hire more flight attendants on top of recalling those who were retrenched. Foreign airlines like Qatar Airways did also hire more cabin crew from the country.

Pilots

Before the pandemic, there was already a shortage of pilots due to the continuous rise in passenger air travel demand. However today, it is a whole different ball game. Not only is the resurgence of passenger air travel driving the need to hire more pilots, but cargo operations as well have greatly increased! Student pilots today may be able to move faster to commercial aircraft by the time they graduate.

The Asia-Pacific region alone needs 123,000 pilots in the next 18 years, both for passenger and cargo flights. Out of that number, 43,000 pilots will be needed in South East Asia which includes the Philippines.

This is why I do highly recommend all pilot aspirants to go enroll in an aviation school. I recommend TopFlite Academy for all looking for a flying school.

Cabin crew

Among all personnel, the cabin crew seems to be the largest. The world will need a total of 886,000 flight attendants in the next 18 years. Out of this number, 339,000 cabin crew will be needed in the Asia-Pacific region, and 77,000 in South East Asia. Thanks also to the numerous low-cost airlines in the region such as AirAsia, VietJet, Cebu Pacific, and other low-cost airlines that continue to dominate the short hop routes.

The cabin crew was greatly affected during the pandemic as more than 90% of passenger flights were grounded. While many pilots were still tasked to fly all-cargo flights, the cabin crew were mostly limited to passenger flights. Only a few (and depending on the airline too) flew all-cargo flights.

The cabin crew profession remains to be a very attractive career, especially in the Philippines. More and more aspirants continue to brave long lines just to get that chance to become flight attendants. In the airline industry, these flight attendants remain to be a very important component. Passenger flights cannot take off without flight attendants.

The outlook remains bright

While many thought that aviation is “dead”, it never was. The covid-19 vaccine roll-out played a huge role in bringing back the vigor of the airline industry. While the initial forecast was that things will only recover between 3 to 5 years, the vaccines became a game-changer for aviation, bringing back confidence as several cases of covid-19 continue to drop.

Indeed, 612,000 pilots and 886,000 cabin crew are a huge number to fill. There is indeed so much excitement from now until 2040 as more aircraft are to be delivered to the airlines. Aviation is indeed back, even stronger!