The aviation industry needs to hire thousands of more people as manufacturers of airplanes and aircraft engine-makers are racing to ensure a pipeline of technicians to fix and maintain their aircraft as a wave of current employees approach retirement. In July, Boeing forecast that the aviation industry will need 754,000 new aircraft technicians over the next 2 decades, more than 80% of them for the growing commercial aviation sector. That crunch comes amid a wave of retirements that's sweeping other corners of the industry like pilots. About 30% of aircraft mechanics are at or near retirement age and they're retiring faster than they're being replaced, the Aviation Technician Education Council, said in December. The average age of a mechanic is 51. More than a quarter are older than 64 years. <br/>
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Boeing is facing a problem as it races to meet demand for single-aisle, fuel-efficient jets: where to store unfinished 737s piling up at a factory near Seattle. One answer in late July was the taxiway of the small airport in Renton, Wash., next to its Boeing factory there. “Boeing is running out of space,” Renton public works administrator Gregg Zimmerman wrote to city council members in a July 27 memo about the taxiway plan. “They have encountered an emergency production challenge that threatens to interfere with their ability to keep their airplane production lines running.” The unfinished airplanes illustrate a challenge to Boeing as it tries to make enough of its new 737 Max jets to meet fast-growing demand. Boeing and Airbus together have more than US$1t in orders for planes, driven by a global boom in air travel. <br/>
US airlines, bruised by higher fuel prices, are stepping up efforts to raise fares and increase fees to avoid a third straight year of declining profits. “Carriers have struggled to keep pace with the rising cost of fuel, among many others,” John Heimlich, chief economist of A4A, said last week. “I can assure you carriers are looking at every aspect of their revenue arsenals and cost elements to try to right the ship.” Such initiatives are increasingly apparent as the summer travel season ends. Business fares climbed 8% last week from a year earlier, even as ticket prices for leisure travel were little changed, said a Macquarie Group analyst. Investors have been betting that the push will bear fruit after dumping airline shares during the first half of the year. <br/>
The domestic airlines industry is expected to post higher losses at US$1.65b-$1.90b this fiscal year, up from projected $430-$460m, amid the headwinds due higher costs and lower yields, a report said. Besides, airlines need to raise over $3b in near-term based on June quarter estimates, with full service carriers requiring around $2.6b, while the low-cost peers needing $400m, the India unit of CAPA said Monday in its Mid-Year Aviation Outlook 2019. Full service carriers are critically placed and could lose $1.75-2b in the current fiscal largely because of their uncompetitive cost base on domestic operations and a lack of profitability on international routes, it said. Traffic growth continues unabated but the financial outlook has deteriorated dramatically since January, the report said. <br/>