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Boeing Sees Need for 30,850 New Pilots a Year as Travel Soars

Pilots sit in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-8 passenger aircraft. — Pilots sit in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-8 passenger aircraft.
Photographer: Martin Leissl/Bloomberg

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July 25, 2016, 2:00 PM UTC

Global airlines will need to hire 30,850 pilots a year for the next two decades to keep pace with new planes on order and surging demand for air travel, according to a forecast by Boeing Co.

Carriers will need to recruit and train about 617,000 pilots to fly the 39,620 aircraft, valued at $5.9 trillion, that the U.S. planemaker expects to be added to the global fleet through 2035. The Asia-Pacific region will account for about 40 percent of total new hires as China eclipses North American as the largest travel market.