Asia's Travel Boom Is in Trouble as a Pilot Shortage Worsens

An unprecedented travel boom in Asia has spawned new budget carriers and millions of first-time fliers but a shortage of pilots is threatening to choke that demand. Global traffic is set to double in the next two decades with the biggest increase expected in the Asia- Pacific region. Boeing Co. forecasts that the region needs 16,930 new planes and about 261,000 pilots before 20137. This means that the current number of pilots needs to double during that period in order to keep up with demand.

This fits perfectly with what we discussed in class today about the history of Japans economic system. Japan had a massive labor force that was focused on agriculture and was entirely inefficient. Based on the Lewis two sector model there was a huge gap of inefficient workers that were weeded out and needed to find a new place to go. We mentioned in class today that China is going through something very similar. It is becoming harder and harder to attract people inland without increasing wages to be more competitive. China has had the luxury of an incredibly large supply of labor and the labor force is finally realizing they can demand higher wages. This is going to be interesting because wages will go up and China will fire more people in order to maintain efficiency. These workers and future generations should look to becoming proficiently trained in aviation. If there really is a drastic need for more pilots to support demand then it should be easy for workers to focus on more skilled positions like aviation because other easier opportunities wont be as readily available like it was in the past. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-26/asia-s-travel-boom-in-trouble-as-pilot-shortage-worsens