(KERO) — From pilots and maintenance technicians to cabin crew members Boeing reports there are thousands of people needed over the next 20 years.
What's causing the lack of interest in these positions?
Flight instructors say there's a shortage because more experienced employees are retiring and not enough new people are getting the itch to fly.
Jerome Howard is the chief flight instructor at Revv Aviation. He admits the industry could improve its outreach to underrepresented populations like women and people of color.
"For so long, everybody thought if you're gonna be a pilot, you have to be from the military or you have to be from this particular ethnic group or whatever and that's not the case."
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports just over 3-percent of aircraft pilots and flight engineers are Black or African-American.
If more people don't fill these roles one aviation instructor predicts a grim outlook with fewer planes in the air and more planes on the ground with people stuck.
