Making Book

Arlington, Virginia-based aerospace titan Boeing has announced its analysts foresee an imminent, acute, and worldwide need for new aircraft and professionals skilled in the operation, maintenance, and support thereof.

The general consensus among aerospace stakeholders vis-à-vis Boeing’s augury approximated: “When the world’s largest aircraft producer renders so bold and specific a prognostication, it behooves the entirety of the aviation industry to pay heed.”

Informed by its Pilot and Technician Outlook (PTO)—an arcane work of divination that peers twenty-years into the future of the aerospace industry and portends what profits or perils lie therein—Boeing set forth the global commercial fleet will grow to north of 47,000 aircraft by 2042—nearly double its current size. To support such a multitude of machines, Boeing posits that air carriers will need hire upwards of 2.3-million new personnel, to include 649,000 pilots, 690,000 maintenance technicians, and 938,000 cabin crew members.

Boeing vice president Chris Broom stated: “With domestic air-travel fully recovered and international traffic near pre-pandemic levels, demand for aviation personnel continues to increase. Our competency-based training and assessment offerings will help ensure high-quality training for future and current aviation professionals and continue enhancing aviation safety through immersive and virtual training solutions.”

Boeing’s PTO—which represents a 3.4% increase from 2021—excludes the Russia region, to which Western aircraft cannot be exported on account of wartime sanctions. While China, Europe, and North America represent more than half the total demand for new aircrew, cabin-crew, and maintenance personnel, the world’s fastest-growing commercial aircraft markets are Africa, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, all of which are expected to grow by more than four-percent over the forecast period.

Readers are reminded that Boeing’s PTO—after the fashion of all forecasts—is an exercise in speculation. Boeing’s purview is vast; the company exerts immense influence over and retains some of the best talent in the aerospace industry. That Boeing’s counsel merits consideration is undisputed—just as it’s undisputed that the entirety of Vegas’s estimable oddsmakers wrongly predicted the outcome of Super Bowl XLII.

FMI: www.boeing.com