"Fly Boy Part 2"

EXT. PLANE. DAY.

FADE IN

Narrator
Effects of the critical number of certified commercial pilots leads to many of them receiving emails offering generous incentives to work unscheduled shifts.

Pilot
This has become a revolving door. Regional airlines struggle to maintain the number of certified pilots they currently have. Many lose them to JetBlue, United, and other major carriers. This leads to some airlines having to cut the number of flights they provide.

Narrator
A Seattle Times newspaper article from 2017 announced the regional airline for Alaska Air was forced to cancel 318 flights that summer because there weren't enough pilots to fly the airplanes. Douglass Kidd, the President of the National Associate of Airline Passengers remarked about canceled flights this way:

Douglass Kidd
My main concern is that they're {experts of the subject of the shortage of certified commercial pilots} taking a look at this looming pilot shortage and saying, "Wow, this is a good time to automate. What do we need all these pilots for anyway? That's the thing that scares me."

Narrator
Unmanned drones are a reality. And, technology for self-driving cars is already being tested by Tesla, Mercedes, and Lexus. On that topic, Boeing Executive Steve Nordlund stated:

Steve Nordlund
I expect to see more automation and aiding in the cockpit, maybe a change in the crew number up in the cockpit.

Narrator
Aviation is a very complex system of systems. You have the airplane, the pilot, air-traffic controllers, the ground system, the catering system, and the feeding system. All of these come into play to just get the airplane from one point to another. In Part Three we will discuss possible solutions to the critical shortage of commercial pilots. Until the next time.