Pilot Shortage Issue Splits European Airline Execs
Photo Credit: An image from the cockpit of a Lufthansa aircraft. The airline ended a dispute with pilots earlier this year. Lufthansa
Skift Take
Are there enough airline pilots to go around? There's no agreement on whether there's a crisis, but some airlines are at a greater disadvantage than others.
Global airline profits are expected to hit record levels in 2018 with passenger numbers rising by 6 percent.
This is great news for the aviation industry, but one problem gnawing at the optimism is finding enough pilots to fly the planes.
Expansion in China and elsewhere is putting pressure on established markets like Europe, where airline CEOs are beginning to take note.
Ryanair's well-publicized struggles gave the issue further prominence. The Dublin-based carrier has always denied that it has a pilot shortage, but a rostering failure meant that it was forced to cancel 18,000 flights over the coming months.
“We are not short of pilots in Ryanair. There just was a temporary shortage on the standby front," CEO Michael O'Leary said after the airline's first-half results in October.
Ryanair isn’t the only air
