For my first post I thought I'd touch on something that's been kicking around the industry for a while: a predicted shortage of pilots for the airlines. As Flightglobal's ops man David Learmount said in a recent article, this fear has been around for around two decades now. However, something has always occurred to stop said shortage from becoming reality.
This could be set to change, as carriers recover from the market crash of 08/09, with increasing retirement and fewer student pilots training (presumably because of a mix of employment uncertainty and extortionate costs). Of course, training companies will be happy about their prospects, and Learmount goes on to discuss the dangers of quantity over quality training, and with good reason.
But the one thing I, and I'm sure many other would-be pilots, would like to know is this: could a chronic shortage eventually see a reintroduction of (at least partially) paid for training by airlines? After all, they're going to need to fill the gap somehow, and there are falling numbers of military pilots converting. If prospective students are put off by a poor environment, then how else?
