Flights grounded as airlines face pilot shortage as hundreds retire

World: After being plunged into a crisis by the coronavirus, the aviation industry faces even more problems as the world emerges from the worst of the global pandemic only to find that there is now likely to be a pilot shortage after thousands of people have been made redundant or have chosen to retire.

Government policies such as mandatory vaccinations for trainee pilots and travel limitations have also kept a new batch of possible aviators away, according to Bhanu Choudhrie, managing director of Alpha Aviation Group, which operates flight schools in the United Arab Emirates and the largest in Southeast Asia Training Center, the Philippines. They have trained over 2,500 pilots for airlines such as Philippine Airlines, AirAsia Group, Cebu Pacific and Air Arabia. Modern longer-range narrow-body planes like Airbus SE's A321 XLR jets - due for delivery from 2023 - will require more pilots than previous models, which will compound the shortage, Choudhrie said in an interview in London.

"The airlines are going to continue to buy, to modernize their fleets, and in doing so, they are going to need pilots," he said. “The market is getting interesting again and we are starting to see this upward trend, we are starting to see airlines coming to us and saying to us: look at this is my delivery schedule, can you have pilots ready for me in two years ?? "

Many airlines are aggressively attempting to rehire pilots as well as cabin and ground staff, but it has not been a straightforward process and some positions are unfilled. Careers in the industry don't seem as secure as they used to be. According to Choudhrie, it takes 18 to 24 months to train a pilot, which means carriers should strive to prepare them well in advance of delivery of new planes, including narrow-body planes, like the A321 XLR, which can fly longer. Airlines typically order planes years in advance given the limited production capacity of aircraft manufacturers.

The crew ratio - or the number of pilots assigned to an aircraft - could reach 18 for the A321 XLR compared to 10 or 12 for older models in the same family, said Choudhrie, who also runs a private equity firm. based in the UK. C&C Alpha Group was an early investor in Air Deccan, a pioneer of India's low-cost flight boom.

Boeing Co. predicts that the world will need more than 600,000 new pilots over the next two decades, during which airlines will make 43,600 deliveries of new aircraft. Demand for new aircraft will skyrocket in markets where carriers are looking to replace their old fleets, and in countries like India, the country of IndiGo, the largest customer of India's best-selling narrow-body aircraft. Airbus.

This is why Alpha Aviation is setting up a new flight training center in India, with an initial investment of $15 million, and plans to grow and invest up to $100 million, Choudhrie said. He declined to elaborate before an official announcement.