Aviation companies are having a hard time at the moment as cash is in short supply. There is going to be a end to the stagnation in the industry and employers are going to have to prepare to invest in getting the right staff. The ones that have stopped investing may well be in for a shock. I am not talking about planes and infrastructure but people. People make companies grow, give them the personal side and people make the difference to how people perceive a company. If employers need highly skilled employees they need get them now and training as the skills in our industry cannot be taught overnight.
Boeing has recently increased it's forecast for predicted pilot and maintenance engineers for the next twenty years. They reckon that there will be a need for an additional 448,000 pilots and over 500,000 engineers to cope with the larger world fleet in the forthcoming decades. It has been reported that the global industry is already expanding and this can be seen with the recruiting that is going on in the Middle East. Emirates is currently planning to recruit over 700 pilots in the next few years. They won't be looking for 200 hour pilots but, they will want the pilots with 1000's of hours and these will come from the traditional airlines, creating vacancies.
I met with a German general aviation operator last week and he is concerned that the German regional airlines may tempt away his flight deck crews as they are starting to interview. If the German operators are planning for growth there is hope for rest of Europe.
With every expansion there will be a requirement for new cabin crews. I met with the Emirates recruiting team in Nice recently and they are touring around Europe looking for as many good cabin crew members as they can find. They have a significant requirement for people and asked me to direct all applications to their website. They are prepared to invest now to get the right people to work as cabin crew and they are planning to continue expanding over the next few years.
Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe, just maybe and we at www.flightcrewfinder.com will be watching very carefully. We have seen some increased recruiting activity on the website and it augers well for the future of our industry.