Many of us grew up in a world where the US was the center of all commercial aviation and the rest of the world was at best, a destination.  Exploring new worlds used to be (and still is) one of the great draws for people to entertain joining the ranks of professional pilots.  However, the US airlines have retracted over the last two decades, offering minimal career growth opportunities for young pilots.  Meanwhile outside our borders, the aviation world has expanded rapidly and “grown up” to make commercial flying a career with truly global opportunities.

For the first time ever, passenger airline traffic within Europe outpaced US domestic traffic in 2010 (despite volcanoes and holiday snow closures).  Further, the Asian market is expected to become the world’s largest aviation market within the next decade.  Meanwhile, Emirates has ordered over 90 A380 superjumbo jets to fill the middle-eastern skies and create the world’s largest stopover point in Dubai.  Indeed, the world has changed dramatically since the dawn of commercial air transport; and will continue to change just as dramatically in the years to come.

The moral of the story?  Well, aside from just getting out and taking advantage of amazing global airline network to travel the world; the moral here is that young pilots can continue to set their sights high and need not be disappointed by career limitations with US carriers.  The whole world awaits for those willing to explore it…

Matt Baumgarth, Director At Large