Don’t get complacent because the economic downturn has released some trained pilots onto the market.  IATA and Flight Safety Foundation studies show that the medium- and long-term will see the return of a severe pilot shortage serious enough to threaten airline safety. There has to be a global strategy to deal with this.
 

Results from the latest research on fatigue. 

Flight time limitations cannot be suitable for all types of operation, so each airline will have to embed a fatigue risk management system in their own safety management system. How?

How can an airline maximise flight deck/cabin crew co-operation to enhance safety and service quality?

Are alcohol and drugs more of a problem among pilots than airlines like to admit?  Are there legally permitted systems for monitoring it?  What can be done to help pilots at risk?

The deadline has been extended, but it will not be extended again.  For many pilots whose main language is not English this is more difficult than learning to fly, and it overloads students during training, making training longer and more expensive. 

Until the MPL, the assumptions about how pilots should be trained had not changed since the Second World War.  Is there anything wrong with the traditional ways of training pilots? 

By definition an MPL course is tailored for an airline and its fleet.  How does the airline work with a flight training organisation to create an approved course?

The flight training organisation that delivered the worlds first MPL-trained pilots to the line, reports on the results. 

JAA/EASA is the only aviation authority in the world that has replaced multiple national pilot licences with a common regional licence. The MPL, based on ICAO’s prescriptive pilot performance specifications for it, could be the first global pilot standard. Is this the future?

How do you prepare a pilot under modern rules to operate fourth-generation aircraft?

If your airline does not have any destinations with RNP approaches today, it soon will have.  RNP can bring many cost/efficiency benefits, but pilots need to be trained for them.  What does this entail?

OFDM (also called FOQA) can supply a huge amount of usable data.  How can your airline extract the maximum possible safety and cost/efficiency advantage from it?

As simulation becomes cheaper and more capable, it becomes feasible for small and medium sized airlines to consider operating their own training base. 

Airports and ramp space are becoming more crowded.  Efforts to cut airframe damage on the ramp and during taxiing are not having much effect.  Can crew awareness make a difference? 

Will less paper really become paperless?  What additional functionality will be on offer?  Do you know what equipment to consider for the future? 

Research has now established that some cabin air contamination incidents have involved tricresyl phosphates.  This was previously denied.  What are researchers working on now?

After an incident or accident in most countries the police and judiciary can - and often do - prosecute crews first and ask questions afterwards.  Do you know how you would handle this?

Is the under-use of women as pilots a failure to attract them to the industry, or are there other considerations at work?