Every year, thousands of FAA employees, industry members, and international students come to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, to the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, for courses involving aviation safety, air traffic, and technical operations. These professionals ensure that the US National Airspace System remains safe and efficient. CAT Guest Commentary by Carlos Aqueda, AMA-250 Regulatory Standards, FAA Academy.

Before the world faces another pilot shortage, the industry needs to learn how to recruit, train and retain new pools of people. Rona Gindin reports.

When the pandemic is past, or at least under control, and air traffic climbs toward and beyond 2019 levels, a pipeline of new commercial pilots will again be needed. The industry must look beyond men to fill airline cockpit seats.

The forecasts may fluctuate as the airlines recover from the Covid-19 crisis, yet in coming decades military, commercial and private staffs will be populated with hundreds of thousands of additional pilots, and they’ll look different.

Women alone can provide a virtually unlimited supply of candidates. In each region, various sub-groups of the population can also join the ranks. In the United States, for instance, that includes African-Americans, Latinx, LGBTs and Asian-Americans, among others.

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