Looking for a New Career? Airlines Will Need 637,000 More Pilots Before 2035

If you're looking for a career path with plenty of job prospects, you could do worse than earning a pilot's license. As Bloomberg reports, Boeing—one of the biggest plane manufacturers in the world—estimates that in order to keep up with travel demand, the world will need to get 637,000 more pilots in the air over the next 20 years.

Across the world, more people than ever before are traveling by plane, with the number of passengers increasing 7 percent between 2015 and 2016, as the International Air Transport Association reported last year. Those numbers are expected to keep growing, and the organization estimates that by 2035, there will be 7.2 billion air passengers per year traveling across the world, thanks to a combination of rising salary trends and decreasing ticket costs.

That doesn't necessarily mean a huge influx of travelers hitting U.S. airports. Much of this increase will likely come from China, India, and other countries across Asia with expanding air travel industries. And as a result of needing more planes and routes to transport the growing demand for flights, airlines are going to need to hire more pilots (and other staff) to keep their planes in the air. That's why North America and Europe will need 117,000 and 106,000 more pilots by 2035, respectively, compared to the Asia-Pacific region's 253,000.

In short, the career prospects of pilots are looking pretty promising, especially if you speak Mandarin. You might want to look into flying lessons.