PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Becoming a pilot After COVID-19
View Single Post
Old 29th Apr 2020, 10:17
  #79 (permalink)  
Chief Willy
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Spain
Age: 44
Posts: 71
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I hate to say it, but if you wanted to become a pilot and are now around the age you would start training, I think you might have missed the boat. There will not be any recruiting for many many years. Mckinsey & Co predict airline travel not returning to pre-Covid levels until 2023, if at all. All airlines are looking at significant redundancies. Unlike 9/11 or 2008 there are no other growing airlines around the world for pilots to go to.

This is probably a good thing for you if you haven't started training yet, as you wont waste any money training on a career that just doesn’t have the legs to sustain a full career for your age.

After COVID is passed we’ll have another challenge to tackle, climate change. The failure of the industry to properly address the carbon issue means we are seen as the bad boys, which means less public support and a perhaps a lowering of demand over the next decade. Then for pilots in 20+ year’s time we’ll have to deal with increased autonomy of the role. Cruise relief pilots etc could be a thing of the past.

The job, whilst enjoyable at times is not what you picture it to be whilst you are a wanabee. You have to put up with a load of cr@p and the
pay and conditions are constantly going downhill. The novelty of flying a plane wears off very quickly and then it becomes more routine. You are not soaring around the sky like a bird,
more just following rules and procedures.

I’ve enjoyed the lifestyle aspects of job up until now. Being in a collapsing industry is no fun though. By all means do some flying for fun, get a PPL. But use this time to skill-up in something else completely, walk away from commercial aviation. For god’s sake do not start paying money to train as a pilot today!

Chief Willy is offline