Baltic Aviation Academy: Demand for pilots in the near future will increase and the requirements will be raised

The aviation business world intensely discusses that the economic recession, which caused the stagnation of the aviation, is over, and now the attention is drawn to the rapidly growing need for pilots and rising requirements for pilot qualification.

The Head of Lithuanian pilot training academy Baltic Aviation Academy FTO (initial pilot training school) Indre Sveistryte states that world aviation professionals are nowadays working on two issues – shortage of pilots and their qualification.

“The rapid pace of life and closer business and social ties among the countries in the world stimulate a very intense development of the aviation – more and more often people choose airplanes as their means of transportation. Due to that the aviation business worldwide is expanding. At the same time, it also creates new challenges: companies purchase more airplanes, but feel a shortage of pilots. In addition, the qualification of existing pilots should meet new, much higher requirements, because the world in the XXI century has changed and encourages aviation to pay much more attention to flight safety,” said Indra Sveistryte while describing the modern trends.

At this time, aviation training experts examine new requirements for the training programs and educational institutions, and discuss the criteria for the training airplanes, pilot selection and assessment.

“Poland for example, estimates that over the next 10 years the country will need about 2000 new pilots, and in addition, there might be a shortage of other aviation specialists, because its aviation market is expanding. Similar trends are seen in other countries. As we expand our activities and accept new training groups of pilots who raise their qualification, we notice that both the Eastern and Western European airlines experience a shortage of pilots, while expanding their fleet and switching to the new types of aircraft. This encourages us to implement such training programs, which would meet the needs of the airlines,” said the representative of Baltic Aviation Academy.

According to her, Baltic Aviation Academy has started a new training program this year – initial pilot training. After completing this study program, the graduates will become professional pilots, and they will be awarded a license valid in all of the EU countries.

In addition, the representative of Baltic Aviation Academy drew attention to the newly emerging requirements to the future pilots and pilots who change their qualification.

“Noticeably more attention is paid to the personal qualities of the pilots, not only to their age, physical condition and knowledge. In the XXI century, when aviation is in the center of attention, aircraft pilots must comply with certain personal requirements that affect a pilot’s job. More and more attention is drawn to the behavioral and human values, and the way of thinking, because that is what determines a pilot’s behavior and affects decisions at the critical moments. In modern aviation simply knowing how to fly the aircraft is not enough, the most important thing is to operate the aircraft and work smoothly as a part of a team,” states Indre Sveistryte.

According to her, Baltic Aviation Academy takes into account the essential changes of the aviation market and future requirements while creating the training programs.

Over 2,000 professionals per year benefit from the training offered by Baltic Aviation Academy, during which more than 10,000 hours of flight simulators are held. This year the number of pilots studying at Baltic Aviation Academy during the period of 9 months has increased 4 times as compared to this period last year.