Golden opportunity?

Updated forecasts on aircraft deliveries by both major jet manufacturers at the Paris Air Show didn’t only mean a multi-billion Dollar boost to Boeing and Airbus sales figures, they underscored a growing challenge facing the industry over coming years: training enough new pilots to fly them. But is Australia doing enough to grab a bigger piece of the lucrative training pie?

It’s a scary thought. When aerospace leaders gathered at Le Bourget in June for the Paris Air Show, Boeing announced it was raising its forecast for the number of aircraft it says will be delivered over the next 20 years, to 41,030 new planes valued at $6.1 trillion dollars. Last year it forecast 39,620 new planes and that was 4.1 per cent more than 2015. Airbus too lifted its predictions, to 34,170 passenger aircraft and 730 freighters worth a combined $5.3 trillion, up from 32,600 in 2015. It was great news for the manufacturers, who ended up with better than expected sales announcements in France.

But for crew training organizations, who will have to up their game and invest in expansion to meet the growing demand for cockpit crew around the world – especially in Asia – it has raised the bar. Warnings of potential pilot shortages are nothing new. Flights have already been cancelled in fast growing markets such as India and China because airlines simply didn’t have the crews to get the planes into the sky. They are still struggling to keep up.