Originally Posted by
Rated De
SNIP
From the Forbes article below, the problem the industry faces is that the recruitment, training and promotion paths, indeed the very infrastructure in which this upgrade throughput occurs cannot cope with such a roll-off of experience from the top of the experience pile. It has not been seen before, thus the industry is ill equipped to deal with it. Leaving aside the Boeing projection' of growth, which, after all is marketing, the retirement rate alone is staggering and a function of date of birth. That it represents 50% of all airline pilots in North America is making airlines notice!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisag.../#cf3aedc15492
The looming demographic shortage purely due to the airlines allowing an age 'bulge' in their pilots, is one of the reasons for the pressure for reduced or remote pilots - with autonomous aircraft. There literally may be no other way of keeping some air carriers running.