Meeting the Engineer Demand Crisis in Aircraft Maintenance

This isn’t breaking news. The aviation industry continues to stand at a crossroads as we begin to feel the pinch of the global shortfall of aircraft maintenance engineers, predicted to continue over the next 20–25 years—an issue highlighted by major aviation players. Boeing’s 2024 Pilot & Technician Outlook projects a staggering requirement for 716,000 new maintenance technicians worldwide by 2043, although more conservative estimates have been published since to the tune of 450,000.

Either way, the ELT has well and truly been activated – the question is, what are we going to do about it?

Jetlagged Training Capacity. 
We’ve known about this for a long time, now. In the UK, Europe, and Asia‑Pacific, attrition rates are climbing. AeroProfessional warns that 27% of current aircraft engineers are due to retire within a decade while 45% consider leaving the industry. Compounding this are Brexit-driven licence complexities in the UK and reduced appeal of aviation careers post‑COVID.

Training capacity in MRO and Part‑145 organisations is failing to keep pace. Boeing itself concedes that “insufficient training capacity … will impede growing technician demand”. Apprenticeship pathways have narrowed—most tragically embodied by the collapse of Air Service Training (AST) in Perth in April 2025. AST, founded in 1931 and responsible for training over 160,000 engineers globally, entered administration amid dwindling enrolments and pandemic impacts. As a consequence, the UK has now lost around 20% of its training capacity.

Counting the Cost
Costs for approved basic licence training remain prohibitive to most young people, globally. In Europe and the UK, Part‑66 courses can exceed £30,000–£50,000 per student, with rising operating costs to training organisations for instructors, facilities, and examiners. These expenses deter both participants and providers, exacerbating capacity constraints.

This is where the training model, as a whole, needs another rethink.

Big steps forward have been made in recent times to try to realign the Part-66 regulations with more contemporary competence-based training approach and moves in Australia, for example, to modularise their Part-66 Basic Licence. A small drop in the ocean, though.

The self-study route is often employed to reduce the cost of entry but that comes with a whole set of expensive challenges; expensive to the employer, at least.

Fragmented Governance: A Key Barrier
A glaring issue is the lack of coordination between National Aviation Authorities and governmental Education Departments. While licencing is rightly regulated by aviation bodies, outreach, funding access, and vocational curricula fall under education ministries—often working in isolation. As AeroProfessional emphasises, the solution mandates “better coordination between industry, educational institutions, and governments”.

Without a unified policy framework, funding remains inconsistent and training delivery fragmented.

…the solution mandates “better coordination between industry, educational institutions, and governments”.

AeroProfessional

Of course, ICAO have clearly set the direction with its ‘Next Generation of Aviation Professionals’ programme. The NGAP programme was established to ensure that the international air transport system will have a sufficient supply of qualified and competent professionals to operate, manage, and maintain its future.

To support these efforts, ICAO has developed a global NGAP strategy, structured around a clear Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Four Key Focus Areas.

These Key Focus Areas include;

• Advocacy, outreach, promotion of best practices and knowledge sharing
• Workforce forecasting, planning & monitoring
• Education & training
• Resource mobilization, implementation support and capacity development

As ICAO looks to Member States, authorities, agencies and other national-level stakeholders to help implement this important strategic plan, there is a significant opportunity to proactively engage with our CAA and implement key focus areas at the hangar floor level.

Truly effective change in the aviation industry has to start at a local level and in a way that makes sense to each of the different industry contexts we operate in. 

What could this look like?

• Facilitate knowledge transfer: Invest in mentoring and supervision training for your experienced senior engineers and pair them with trainees for mentoring and training opportunities.
• Understand and communicate your forecast resourcing needs, based on your CAMO’s current scheduled maintenance plan.
• Keep an eye out for future UK apprenticeship schemes (Level 4)
• Consider what you might share and collaborate on with other like-minded organisations to grow engineering talent both locally and regionally.

​Urgent Steps for Industry & Governments

• Incentivise training growth: Subsidies, university loan repayment deals , and recruitment campaigns spotlighting the vital role of engineers.
• Prioritise apprenticeships: Develop effective training schemes, with public–private backing to ensure apprenticeship pipelines.
• Align regulation and education: Aviation authorities and education ministries must co‑design vocational qualifications, apprenticeship credits, and funding for Part‑147 institutes.
• Raise awareness early: Promote AME careers in schools and career fairs, with a lens on diversity and inclusion to broaden participation.

Question time.

To all aviation, MRO, and Part‑145 leaders:

What are your staff training priorities?
– Keeping pace with your current engineer training obligations
– Providing your apprentices with clear and fulfilling training opportunities
– Developing current engineer talent for succession planning
– Ensuring your training manager / training engineer is well-resourced
– Anything else not on this list?

Get in touch and let us know .