Mar 18, 2021 04:13 PM EDT By Ernest Hamilton, UniversityHerald Reporter

Many of us are aware of the adverse impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the airline and travel industry. The onset of the virus effectively shut down the whole industry in the same way that many land-based businesses have been forced to shut down in order to stem the rate of infection. In fact, according to this article, passenger traffic is down by 95%. According to a report from the Transportation Security Administration, about 874,406 passengers were screened at U.S. airports on December 31, 2020, whereas during the same day in the previous year, about 2.4 million passengers were screened.

Given these circumstances, it may seem strange that flight schools are reporting a high number of enrollees despite the condition that the airline industry is currently in. This high number of flight school enrollees can be attributed to several factors:

The Effects of the Pandemic Are Only Temporary

The first thing to consider is that even when the economic effects of the pandemic were severe, it remains only a temporary setback. Even now, vaccines are being distributed in major cities, and while nobody can determine when we're going to fully recover from the pandemic, it's likely that the airline industry will have recovered by the time today's aeronautics and aviation students have graduated.

Using Job Loss As an Opportunity to Shift Careers

Another probable reason for the high number of avionics and aeronautics enrollees is that it's possible that many people who have lost their jobs during the pandemic have opted to shift careers. Regardless of whether this was their choice prior to the pandemic, sudden unemployment may have given them an opportunity to pursue a different career path. 

The Demand for Pilots Continues to Be High

We also have to consider the fact that even before the pandemic, there was already a high demand for commercial pilots. Even though the demand is currently low, that demand is bound to spike once travel restrictions are eased. In fact, in 2018, Boeing announced that it would need about 608,000 pilots in the near future. Boeing has also unveiled plans for the CST Commercial Spacecraft. Even now, when there are limits to how many flights may be done during restrictions, commercial flights need several flight crews for a single plane. We have to account for pilot exhaustion, so a plane is not flown by a single crew, but rather by sets of crews and complementary shift crews.

Even as things may seem dire, setting yourself on the path toward a career in aeronautics and avionics may be one of the best choices you can make, especially when we consider that not only are industries bound to recover, but that technology is rapidly developing. There are a good number of flight schools such as the Spartan College of Aeronautics that can provide you with the necessary tools and knowledge for a career in this field. 

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