Cork could benefit from worldwide pilot shortage

Cork could become a major centre for the development of pilots as a global dearth in filling the roles grows over the next decade.

The worldwide commercial aviation industry will need an extra 255,000 pilots by 2027 to sustain its rapid growth and is not moving fast enough to fill the positions, according to a 10-year forecast published by training company Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE).

More than half of the required pilots have not yet begun training, the report adds, storing up potential problems as the industry braces for an increase in passenger air traffic that is expected to double the size of the commercial air transport industry in the next 20 years.