A looming pilot shortage within the ranks of domestic and international airlines has the ingredients for creating a transportation crisis of global magnitude. Fundamentally, it is a crisis of arithmetic. In the United States, baby boomer pilots are nearing mandatory retirement—at age 65—and not much of a plan exists for building a pipeline to deliver a sufficient number of fully qualified and highly trained replacements.
The potential impact the pilot shortage would have on air travel, cargo, and commerce would affect virtually every American. Imagine routine cancellations of flights because of the inability to find rested crews. Or the inability to deliver life-saving drugs overnight. Airlines would abandon less profitable routes at mostly smaller airports. Already, some regional U.S. carriers are reducing flights because they are losing pilots to majors faster than they can be replaced in the supply chain.
If this was not enough of a challenge, Boeing predicts the need for 500,000 new commercial pilots worldwide—more than 25,000 a year—through 2035 to fill the demand of crewing aircraft it and other manufacturers are producing at record rates.
In the immediate and long-term future, general aviation will be an even larger part of the solution than it is today. No other industry can fill the gap. If there ever was an argument for ensuring the health of the GA community, this is it. Virtually every pilot begins his or her career in a GA airplane at a GA airport. With fewer and fewer military pilots opting to join the airlines, the responsibility for filling the pipeline will fall to general aviation—to aviation colleges and universities, to Part 141 schools, and to the loose network of GA flight schools. Altogether, these GA training alternatives will provide the majority of pilots required by airlines for decades to come.
AOPA and the AOPA Foundation are exploring ways through an aviation high school initiative to expand the reach and breadth of our training and safety expertise to create faster and more effective solutions to meet the urgent need. One emerging training path is to nurture the development of professional aviation study programs at the high-school level, producing a highly trained aviation workforce to meet demand in all segments of the aerospace industry—from pilots to engineers, controllers to technicians.
What is the Aviation High School Initiative?
First, it is an effort to identify and organize all of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathmatics) aviation high schools and programs around the country—and to create more of them. The initiative will build enrollments and support highly motivated and engaged STEM high school students in their efforts to become pilots or otherwise bring their skills and talents to the aviation field. In this way, AOPA can help bring thousands of young people into the world of GA while expanding the pilot rosters at all levels.
Second, the initiative will help assure that standards for the next generation of GA and professional pilots remain high. I have spent time on a number of aviation high school campuses and can say that the quality of the aviation STEM instruction, ground school, and flight instruction is second to none. Maintaining standards is critical; as in a typical supply shortage, there is a great temptation to lower them to meet demand. We need only review recent accidents to remind us that poorly vetted and untested trainees in the cockpit is a shockingly bad idea—and the result of lowering standards.
Not all GA pilots seek to become commercial pilots or ATPs. Most of us are happy staying at the lower levels and out of Class A airspace. But to meet future demand and retain the highest standards, we will need more GA pilots to consider ATP careers, which is one reason why a national aviation high school initiative is needed.
An AOPA advisory committee of accomplished aviation education leaders from around the country has already met twice to help us define goals and outcomes, and guide the process to reach them. We’re excited about this new venture to leverage AOPA’s resources and leadership to educate the next generation of pilots and aerospace professionals. The aviation high school initiative will be among the most important investments that we can make to secure the future of GA, and we look forward to sharing our progress with you.
Email [email protected]
James Minowis an active general aviation pilot who became executive director of the AOPA Foundation in 2014.
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