Due to pilot shortage, airlines will reduce the number of flights this summer

Due to a lack of experienced pilots, many airlines will have to reduce their flights this summer. A phenomenon that will continue.

The passengers are there, but not the pilots. If the demand for commercial flights is back to a pre-pandemic level, that of 2019, airlines are struggling to recruit staff, especially experienced pilots. A shortage of qualified personnel forcing them to reduce their offer of available flights this summer, report Les Echos this Wednesday, March 15.

Caution is the mother of safety and in order to avoid last minute flight cancellations and scenes of chaos at the airport in the summer of 2022, the airlines have preferred to take the lead and reduce their offer of flights. For example, Lufthansa has eliminated 34,000 flights from Frankfurt and Munich, while American Airlines has cut 50,000 flights from its summer schedule, while changing the schedules of several thousand others.

Air France wants to operate all its flights

Air France-KLM seems to want to escape this fate. The company, which managed to ensure all its flights last summer, intends to do the same during the upcoming summer period. To do so, the company is offering its pilots to give up their vacations in July and August in exchange for a bonus of up to 2,800 euros per week, according to Les Echos. It also plans to hire nearly 500 new pilots this year.

According to a study conducted by Boeing in 2022 and reported by our colleagues, Europe will need to train 122,000 new pilots by 2041. Globally, the total need will be 612,000 pilots over the same period.

Source: https://www.capital.fr/entreprises-marches/en-manque-de-pilotes-les-compagnies-aeriennes-vont-reduire-le-nombre-de-vols-cet-ete-1463026