Towards the end of last year, a deadly virus broke out in Wuhan China and started to claim lives at an alarming rate. The virus was named coronavirus, and efforts were made to contain it but it continued to spread alarmingly. Early this year, there were confirmed cases of the virus outside the borders of China, affecting other countries around the world. It was soon declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization because of how fast it spread and the devastating effects it brought with it. Currently, this deadly pandemic has shut down many industries globally. The aviation especially have been devastated as more people choose not to travel.
The Global Pilot Shortage
One of the biggest challenges that have been faced by the world aviation industry in recent times is the shortage of air personnel, especially pilots. This is because the demand for air travel has grown at a very rapid rate in recent times, such that available air personnel is not enough to satisfy this demand adequately. Boeing Airline foretasted that about 800,000 pilots will be needed in the next 20 years. According to Dennis Muilenberg, who is Boeing’s CEO, “the global pilot shortage represents one of the biggest challenges that the airline industry is facing today.” Before Coronavirus broke out there was a healthy need for new pilots around the world. But with airlines now struggling, is there still a shortage of commercial pilots?
