Originally Posted by
Sam Ting Wong
A valid point, a swing to recruit from China is possible. The political risks you mention are fair as well, one would have to make a balanced evaluation depending on the individual alternatives, e.g. compared to Middle East or South Aftica.
Whether a lifetime career still exists in aviation at all is debatable, I am convinced In 15-20 years AI and automation in association with demographic pressure especially in China will change everything. Growth of technology will be exponential and faster than expected. Just imagine the potential savings, no FTLs, no hotel cost, no recurrent training, no leave, no sick days, no recruitment issues. You would not "only" save the cost of crew, but many more, sim instructors, dispatch, admin, etc etc. The saving potential is enormous, which is it why it will be implemented. Entering this line of work today at age 20-30 is mad in my opinion. You will end up at age 40-50 with non-transferrable skills in an obsolete profession.Best you can hope for is a job scope compared to a lonely MTR driver with corresponding pay and social status.
It's not Cathay that is imploding, its our profession.
I couldn't agree more. And I would add that the AI revolution has already begun, it's just that many of us are not yet fully aware of its presence or the magnitude of its impact. In the near term, it will certainly streamline our ground-based operations. Imagine CX without the tedious IT minions!
However, this transition will eventually result in us all being replaced . We will see a ULR that typically requires a four-person crew, reduced to two, then one, and ultimately, no human pilots at all, maybe with some sort "pilot" overseeing multiple aircraft missions from a single location, stepping in only when intervention is necessary, and who will probably only have a theoretical understanding of how to fly an aeroplane - much like a 10 year old playing with flight sim on their PC.
I firmly believe we are witnessing the final phase of the traditional aviator era. It's quite possible that the last conventional pilot, as we understand the role today, has already been born.