'Brace for a slowdown'
UND speaker series delivers frank advice to aviation students
University of North Dakota aerospace students were advised to “brace for a slowdown” in airline industry hiring but to be poised for a recovery that could occur “dramatically” once the coronavirus pandemic has passed.
The information was delivered during an online Aviation Industry Speaker Series forum created by UND aerospace faculty that allowed them to communicate directly with aviation students facing withering job prospects during the pandemic.
“Those of us who’ve lived through difficult events, such as 9/11 and the Great Recession, knew people who would say the industry would never be the same, or profits would never return,” UND Aviation Department Chair Jim Higgins told the students. “When you see the data, it demonstrates that time and again we always respond and recover. Not only do we recover, we grow stronger.”
Higgins was joined on the forum by UND Director of Aviation Industry Relations Kent Lovelace and UND Aviation Associate Professor Brandon Wild.
Additional forums included presentations from Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, FedEx, and the National Business Aviation Association.
