A new report that two airline pilots fell asleep mid-flight and missed the plane's landing has given the public a rare glimpse at life behind the cockpit doors in the era of COVID-19.
While investigators are looking into exactly what happened during the flight, one thing is already well-known: Airlines around the world are facing a shortage of pilots and other flight crew members, which can lead to worker exhaustion and burnout.
"I think it's reflective of an increasing concern that pilots have across the globe of just being overworked, need to work more overtime, because of those pilot shortages," Lindsey Roeschke, a travel and hospitality analyst for Morning Consult, told CBS News. As COVID-19 was spreading in 2020 and 2021, when airline operations came to a near standstill, carriers offered early retirement to thousands of pilots in an effort to slash costs.
Meanwhile, there is no quick fix, Roeschke said, noting that even raising wages is ineffective because it simply spurs pilots to move to higher-paying airlines rather than expanding the pilot pool. "Airlines can hire as much staff as they want to hire, but it takes a long time for pilots to be trained, certified. It's not only a time commitment but a financial commitment to invest for pilots when they're initially going through those steps," Roeschke said."So it does have a long tail unfortunately, everything that happened during the pandemic."
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