Maintenance and Modifications
New Maintenance Techs Short On Numbers, Skills
While all the talk is of pilot shortages, it is the aging population of maintenance engineers that poses the biggest problem.
While the aerospace industry faces difficulties finding enough suitably qualified and experienced engineers in coming years, there are bright spots where companies are investing heavily in the next generation-such as at SR Technics in Zurich, Switzerland which has supplied large, well-equipped workshops for training. (Photo: Ian Sheppard)
While the aerospace industry faces difficulties finding enough suitably qualified and experienced engineers in coming years, there are bright spots where companies are investing heavily in the next generation-such as at SR Technics in Zurich, Switzerland which has supplied large, well-equipped workshops for training. (Photo: Ian Sheppard)

In the annual announcements by Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer and other aircraft manufacturers about the half-million or so additional pilots who will be needed to fill cockpits over the next 20 years, often overlooked is the need for an even greater number of maintenance technicians: about 600,000 by 2031, according to Boeing’s most recent forecast. So if there is already, or will soon be, a shortage of qualified pilots, is there not also a shortfall in maintenance personnel? And not just in commercial aviation but business aviation and civil helicopter operations as well?

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