Aviation training provider CAE has increased by 8% the number of pilots, cabin crew and mechanics it expects the aviation industry will need over the next decade, citing an expected boom in demand for air travel.
That is according to CAE vice-president Marie-Christine Cloutier, who spoke on 16 June as the company released its 2025 Aviation Talent Forecast.
It estimates the aviation industry will need nearly 1.5 million additional employees through 2034, including 300,000 pilots, 678,000 cabin crew, 416,000 mechanics and 71,000 air traffic controllers.
This year’s report is the first of CAE’s annual outlook to include projections for air traffic controllers. The need for controllers has become salient, especially in the USA following shortages that created massive operational disruptions in recent years.
Excepting controllers, CAE’s forecast estimates the industry will need 8% more employees over a decade than it projected in its report last year.
CAE bases the outlook on an expectation that the world’s commercial aircraft fleet will jump about one-third from 33,000 aircraft today to 44,000 by 2034, and that the business jet fleet, now at 23,000, will hit 27,000 aircraft.
“We see, on the commercial side… a straight-line of about 3-5% growth year over year” for a decade, says Cloutier, who oversees strategy, performance, air traffic services and marketing at CAE. “To meet the demand, the industry needs to be proactive and creative.”
The commercial aviation industry will require 1.3 million of the 1.5 million workers, CAE says.
That expansion will come as a wave of existing employees will lease the workforce, pressuring firms to find replacements. For instance, CAE estimates 129,000 commercial aviation pilots will retire and that 69,000 business aviation pilots will step away within 10 years.
Demand for pilots and flight attendants will be greatest in the Asia-Pacific region over the next decade, while North America will need the most mechanics and Europe will need the most air traffic controllers, the report says.
