E-learning an important tool to help airline industry soar

Last year marked a turning point of sorts for the airline industry around the world, with the business overall earning $5.6 billion U.S. in profit.

There are a lot of factors adding jet fuel to the industry's growth, but they all up to one thing - tremendous pressure on airlines to find, hire and train staff to meet their growing needs.

Some reports suggest that 17,000 new pilots will be needed to be trained every year. Other reports suggest that 120,000 new pilots will be needed by the year 2017.

And those figures are for pilots alone. They do not even begin to estimate the number of cabin crew, mechanical and service staff that will also need to be hired and trained if airlines are to keep up with the demand for growth.

That need is driving a lot of airlines to the point of distraction, especially regional air carriers who are faced with losing trained pilots to larger national and international carriers. One regional air carrier in Australia reported an attrition rate of 60% earlier this year.

The result is a frustrating struggle between trying to grow and simply maintaining the status quo in terms of services. The pilot shortage has even caused some regional carriers to suspend or even cancel some routes and services , often incurring costly contract penalties in the process. And it's a struggle to even keep flight instructors from flying off to new jobs back in the pilot seat, leaving a huge gap in the process of bringing new pilots into the industry altogether.

There is no single answer, but e-learning has a lot to offer in addressing the issue.

E-learning can allow airline staff to take training anywhere, a key advantage in a business whose reason for existence is to keep people in motion. E-learning can bridge distance, allowing new staff to complete some portions of their training before they walk through the doors, if desired. E-learning can play a critical role in delivering core conceptual knowledge as part of a blended learning program, and reducing the pressures facing instructor-led training programs.

All this and more will be up for discussion at the 2008 World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow (WATS) set for April 22-24 in Orlando, Florida.

The dominKnow team will be at the show, so if you're attending don't hesitate to drop by booth 128.