Is a pilot a high demand job?
Becoming an airline pilot and the demand for the position has ebbs and flow.
The availability of a position as an airline pilot is heavily reliant on the current economy. Like most jobs and careers are. With the current events, people are afraid of traveling for obvious COVID-19 reasons. So observing how this affects job availability as an airline pilot becomes more interesting and intricate. Most people who are interested in being an airline pilot have put their dreams on hold. Because of such global pandemics and so on, as most people have in general, regarding their career hopes and everyday life. Examining the overall health of the aviation and airline job market, hiring and application trends. The big challenges facing 2021. And any advice for those looking to apply to regional and major airlines will provide excellent insight. On what to expect as a pilot emerging in the industry.
What is Causing the Pilot Shortage?
The current job market has been looking grave between March, 2020-January, 2021. But has taken a positive turn in February, 2021, as far as a future outlook goes (Tulis, 2021). Speculation could be that regional and major airlines are anticipating the Covid-19 vaccines will be aiding the economy and allow people to travel more frequently. On top of that, people are feeling static and stagnant after quarantining for 12 months, and they wish to get out of the house and travel. This offers a second effect, since people have been inside for so long. They rely on getting packages shipped to their houses. Stimulating the cargo and Part 135 operations in the aviation industry (Tulis, 2021).
As people no longer look to brick-and-mortar businesses. They rely on e-commerce and this means that more planes are in the air carrying cargo and goods rather than people. Meaning more pilots are needed to fly more planes due to the shipping surplus. An outlook on future expectations of regional airlines is positive, airlines have begun renewing their advertisement packages with popular aviation websites like AOPA (Tulis, 2021). With that said, speculation could be made that the regional airlines are expecting to begin hiring in the year 2021. Other trends are starting to emerge due to the pandemic.
Technology has been developing during the pandemic and will continue to do so thereafter.
This affects the aviation industry as most interviews will not be done on face-to-face terms, and will rely on online chats or video calls in order to conduct conversation (Tulis, 2021).
This may be convenient to some pilots but not as traditional as other pilots may hope. Some people are very charismatic and communicate well fact-to-face. So the interviewing process may be more difficult when done over a videocall. To add to this, some people may not be that tech-savvy and require a lot of assistance. Which could be another stressful aspect to the interview. Online interviewing may just benefit pilots who have a busy schedule. And would not be able to be flown out and make an interview a two- or three-day process. But rather take an hour and a half out of their day to conduct an interview in the comfort of their home. There are more challenges than these. Moreover, that will contribute to a pilot attempting to start a career as an airline pilot.
As the industry stands, there was and still is a shortage of pilots and talent that are able to move along the airline pipeline (Tulis, 2021).
This fact may not hurt the individual pilot as much as it will affect the industry of passenger travel. Actually, it may be beneficial to the individual pilot looking to be hired on as an airline pilot. As if the supply decreases, then the demand increases, assuring the individual a position. More challenges the industry expected to face is the obvious one, getting passengers and civilians to get more comfortable traveling as the Coronavirus continues to spread (Tulis, 2021).
More vaccines and properly educating the public on how safe it is to travel with airlines. Should help aid this issue. As well as letting the public know that between each flight. The plane becomes wiped down and sanitized for the set of new passengers. Though there are many challenges with the rebound of the aviation industry, there are a few pointers and pieces of advice to take for the pilot wishing to launch his or her future career.
The industry has found ways to decrease the amount of layoffs, something that most of the major airlines have done is offer early retirement packages to the senior members of the staff (Tulis, 2021). In turn, this will mean that a few years down the road. There will be a very hot demand for the pilot who has a four-year degree. In addition, meets the minimum hour requirement. So, for those currently going through training or are at the early part of their careers. Where they are trying to build time. Do not quit the industry and continue to build time, network. And apply to companies who are not hiring for early consideration when they do open their hiring windows.
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Written by Bain Campbell
Is a pilot a high demand job?
References: Tulis. (2021, February). Aviation career specialists note hiring trends. AOPA. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2021/february/09/aviation-career-specialists-note-hiring-trends
