Swiss airlines scramble to train new pilots

Swiss airlines are struggling to find and recruit new pilots for their training schemes, a new report by SRF has revealed. Experts in the aviation industry blamed the shortage of pilots in Switzerland on factors including high start-up costs and the difficulties of combining work with having a family.

SWISS has upped its training course sizes

Switzerland’s flag carrier SWISS has been working hard to tackle the lack of pilots, after staff shortages at the airline saw it offer current pilots large bonuses to work during paid leave. According to SRF, the company has increased its class size for training new pilots from 18 to 24 trainees. 

At the moment, while the company gets 100 applications from candidate pilots every month, only 8 percent of applicants make it through the assessment process and begin training. This means that many of the training classes are left with empty spaces.

According to SRF, SWISS’s February class had just 10 students, although the company’s class for June was almost full. Looking ahead though, only four places are occupied in the class for September, while no one has signed up for December.

Candidates put off by high costs and long working hours

Experts say that potential candidates that could fulfil the roles are often put off by the high costs associated with learning to fly a plane. Despite earning a high salary once graduated, those enrolling at SWISS’s flight school need to pay  30.000 Swiss francs before they even start training. During the current economic climate, fewer people are able to spend so much money on this sort of training, Roman Boller, media spokesperson for the professional association of Swiss pilots, told SRF. 

Aside from this, candidates also have to reckon with the difficulty of the job itself. While being a pilot is a well-respected and prestigious profession, the downsides of the role include lots of time spent in airports away from home, making it difficult for pilots to put down permanent roots and start a family.

Image: Shutterstock.com / Fedor Selivanov