By Captain John Bent, FRAeS
After the pandemic, many of the thousands of pilots who had been grounded did not return to flight decks. Two factors – both triggered by Covid – combined to create a huge airline pilot shortage:
1. A scheduled surge of retirements, most obvious in the US.
2. Closure (without students or any government support) for many primary (ab initio) training schools delivering professional licences.
Government support kept many airlines afloat, but no primary training organisations.