Glob­al air trav­el de­mand con­tin­ues to out­pace eco­nom­ic growth, and US aero­space com­pa­ny Boe­ing fore­casts the com­mer­cial avi­a­tion sec­tor will need 2,370,000 qual­i­fied per­son­nel to meet that de­mand over the next 20 years.

Ac­cord­ing to the Boe­ing’s Pi­lot and Tech­ni­cian Out­look (PTO) 2025-2044 re­port, the sec­tor will need 660,000 new pi­lots, 710,000 new main­te­nance tech­ni­cians, and 1,000,000 new cab­in crew mem­bers to main­tain the glob­al com­mer­cial avi­a­tion fleet over the next 20 years. The PTO re­port says two-thirds of new hires will re­place work­ers leav­ing the in­dus­try ei­ther through res­ig­na­tions or re­tire­ments, while one-third of new hires will sup­port grow­ing com­mer­cial fleets.

Boe­ing cites emerg­ing mar­kets and chang­ing fleet mix­es as key fac­tors dri­ving growth. In 2024, Boe­ing 737 air­craft (all vari­ants) flew 10 mil­lion flights and Air­bus A320 air­craft flew 7.9 mil­lion flights, ac­cord­ing to the 2024 World Air Trans­port Sta­tis­tics Re­port, re­cent­ly re­leased by in­dus­try trade group IA­TA (In­ter­na­tion­al Air Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion).