The world is running out of experienced pilots. Supply is not keeping up with the growing demand for air travel. In Australia, the effects are already starting to bite. Even flagship carrier Qantas is having problems. In recent months it has had to perform a very nimble tap dance to crew its vast fleet and maintain its extensive flight schedule.

In response, Qantas has plans for one of the biggest pilot training programs in its history. It has just announced that its first-ever pilot training academy, training 250 pilots a year, will be based in Toowoomba, Australia. A second site, to train a similar number of pilots, is still to be announced.

Training these many pilots, though, will be a struggle. The academy will first have to find enough instructional pilots to deliver the required training flights.

Ruptured training pipelines

The reason airlines and other operators are in this predicament stems from the rupturing of the training pipelines that historically supplied pilots across all levels of the aviation industry.

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