Civilian pilots fly aircraft of all types privately for pleasure, charity, or in pursuance of a business, or commercially for non-scheduled (charter) and scheduled passenger and cargo air carriers (airlines), corporate aviation, agriculture (crop dusting, etc.), forest fire control, law enforcement, etc. When flying for an airline, pilots are usually referred to as airline pilots, with the
pilot in command often referred to as the
captain.
Airline There were 290,000
airline pilots in the world in 2017 and aircraft simulator manufacturer
CAE Inc. forecasts a need for 255,000 new ones for a population of 440,000 by 2027, 150,000 for growth and 105,000 to offset retirement and attrition: 90,000 in Asia-Pacific (average pilot age in 2016: 45.8 years), 85,000 in Americas (48 years), 50,000 in Europe (43.7 years) and 30,000 in Middle East & Africa (45.7 years).
Boeing expects 790,000 new pilots in 20 years from 2018, 635,000 for
commercial aviation, 96,000 for
business aviation and 59,000 for
helicopters: % in Asia Pacific (261,000), % in North America (206,000), % in Europe (146,000), % in the Middle East (64,000), % in Latin America (57,000), % in Africa (29,000) and % in Russia/ Central Asia (27,000). By November 2017, due a shortage of qualified pilots, some pilots were leaving
corporate aviation to return to airlines.