How is June So Special for Aviation Training?
For a number of professions, particular time of the year is a little bit more important than others in regards to the job search and hiring. Let’s say for teachers, summer is that season when they look for new jobs. Other professions like construction workers, cabin crew, or anything related to agriculture are focused on the job search in the early spring, because summer is the busiest season. Believe it or not, the same seasonality applies to the pilot profession, and particularly young pilots.
What is the perfect time for training?
Nothing is perfect for everyone, but some people see benefits where others just can’t seem to find anything positive. The same goes with the timing of the pilot training. The approximate duration of ATPL Integrated course amongst aviation training academies varies between 16 to 24 months or even longer. You must wonder how the number of months that takes to acquire commercial pilot license is related to the month of June.
Well, first of all – the month you start your training determines the month that it ends. At the academies that provide well structured, managed and timely pilot training, ATPL Integrated training can be flawlessly taught in 16 or 18 months. This assures that student-pilots hold their licenses in hand in the mid-fall. Why is it important? Historically looking at the tendencies, it is the time when airlines open up their recruitment offices and anticipate the flood of the resumes from freshly graduated student-pilots to fill their vacant First Officer positions.
How does it play into your benefit?
It is obvious that summer is the busiest season for pretty much any airline, therefore, they have to prepare to take every vacationer to the desired destination. Because of the pilot retirement, growth tendencies or natural pilot movement between the airlines, companies need new pilots to fill the vacant crew positions. So taking it all into account, the best time to hire new pilots and train them for the specific aircraft type is fall and winter. This assures airlines, that by the time the busiest season comes, the cockpit seats will be occupied by well trained and professional pilots. And to tell you the truth, there will be plenty of cockpits to fill just by looking at the 2015 aircraft delivery data worldwide.
Who’s got the newest fleet?
To give you a brief outlook on the situation in the future, we can take a quick look at the aircraft purchasing data from 2015 produced by Flight International Magazine and this will give a very good estimate where every young pilot should keep an eye on.
Asia Pacific on the run
By dividing the world into regions, we can see that Asia is nowhere near abandoning the leader position in value or aircraft number. The entire Asia Pacific region acquired 623 aircraft worth 43, 6 billion dollars. The leading airlines with the most units purchased are China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Korean Air, Air China, and All Nippon Airways. It is worth mentioning that Asia Pacific specifically focused on acquiring 454 narrowbody aircraft which is important for young pilots because those are the aircraft where pilots build their experience. But Asia also leads in widebody aircraft deliveries with 169 new airplanes and that makes them the fastest and the most rapidly growing region in the world.
North America on a steady rise
Next up is North America with 252 newly purchased aircraft that is worth 16, 4 billion dollars and the lead is taken by American Airlines with 70 unit fleet increase. It is followed by United Airlines, FedEx, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines. The favored aircraft brand in North America was definitely Boeing, however the brand is also liked by a number of Asia Pacific carriers and of course Ryanair.
Europe led by Turkish Airlines
Then Europe steps in with 243 units worth 17, 8 billion dollars. The leader in the region is Turkish Airlines with 21 Airbus aircraft and the total of 33 units. Lufthansa and British Airways also stepped into the Top 5, along with two popular low cost carriers – Ryanair and EasyJet. In 2015 European region expanded by 180 narrowbody and 63 widebody aircraft which will make the region even more connected than ever before.
Middle East is going big
Middle East continues to carry the flag of the wealthiest region and even if it did not acquire the most aircraft in units, it certainly spent the most amount for the fleet expansion. Emirates Airlines never denied its appreciation towards Airbus A380, therefore it is not surprising that company purchased 26 units with the cost of 3, 4 billion dollars. Other big spenders include Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, Saudia, and Kuwait Airways. These companies, along with the smaller industry players purchased 123 aircraft for 14, 3 billion dollars. Middle East isn’t only going big in terms of the dollar amount, but also the size of the aircraft. The region acquired 51 single-aisle and 72 twin-aisle aircraft.
Latin America and Africa slow, but moving forward
Looking at the numbers in these two continents we see additional 97 aircraft (5,9 billion dollars) in Latin America and 29 (2, 6 billion dollars) in Africa. Latin American leaders in the sky are LAN Airlines, Avianca Brazil, Avianca, Aeromexico, and TAM Linhes Aereas. African leaders are well known and heard about thus it is not surprising on the Top 5 list to see Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Air Algerie, Tunisair, and Royal Air Maroc.
How does it all bind up together?
In case you have been wondering, all of these aircraft number and information does tie up with June, because it all plays a significant role in your future. Making a conscientious decision to begin your pilot studies requires good timing calculations and clear five year plan with actions. Such growth and expansion information about airlines is important because it helps you to see which direction you should steer your career into in order to be successful. But it is all doable and manageable if you do your homework before hand and weight every option that is in front of you!
Source: BAA Training
Using Social Media Marketing for Hiring
2016 weren’t easy for airlines around the globe that continue to struggle with ways of finding pilots to fill cockpit seats. 2017 is expected to be an even more pressing year, as Boeing, Airbus and other manufacturers keep accelerating their production, while the already small pool of qualified FOs and PICs grows at a significantly slower pace....
Publishing or copying the content of AVIATION Times without a written electronic permission is strictly forbidden. If you have any information, tips, videos, photos or your press releases for us contact us at news@aviation-times.aero.
AVIATION TIMES © Copyright 2012 - 2025
