Europe is working on reducing flights.

Well, most of Europe is, anyway. Amid the news of Amsterdam scaling back departures, we look at how Europe’s busiest airports are faring when it comes to the number of departures.

London’s Heathrow Airport retains the top spot in 2023, recovering to 2019 numbers of departures (close enough to call it recovered, anyway). However, the big news for November 2023 is the airport surging from fifth to a close second: Istanbul.

Turkish Airlines has made no secret of its plans to grow into the post-pandemic reductions, and IST has risen with its top partner. Notably, the number of flights reduced by AMS has been more than doubled by IST (many of which fly over The Netherlands).

Dutifully bypassed on IST’s way to number two are Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Paris’s Charles-de-Gaulle, long considered the old guard of European hubs. Still a presence, the old hubs have clearly taken a step back while IST took a strong step forward.

Rounding out the top 20 is Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport which saw a 50% drop in scheduled flights compared to 2019.

The big surprise here? Moscow somehow still made the top 20.

About that U.S. pilot shortage…

If your career ambitions include a window office in front of a commercial aircraft, you may want to get a move on.

In today’s world of picking sides, it is the moments of duality that attract our attention so closely. For instance, how can there be a global aircraft shortage and an overcapacity in U.S. leisure markets all at the same time?

Duality. Both can be true. Indeed, both are true.

The same holds for pilots in the U.S. COVID created an acute pilot shortage unlike the U.S. has seen in modern times. That acute shortage is rapidly easing, in part, thanks to a hiring freeze at Spirit Airlines and a strong suggestion for pilots to leave Fed-(but-we’re-not-furloughing)-Ex.

That all happened within a week. What else happened in that week, was a published research report on the U.S. pilot shortage and that aforementioned duality.

Dualities don’t play well in the media, but they sure do wonders for understanding the driving factors in a complex business. (It’s a good thing we aren’t media.)

Subscribers to Visual Approach Research can read the full report on the end of the acute pilot shortage and how that could make the chronic pilot shortage worse. The report looks beyond empty flight decks to how the business of flying is changing to solve the problem in ways other than hiring new pilots.

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