Pandemic-era redundancies, a lack of work/life balance and fewer new trainees entering the industry have all had an impact on workforce shortages in aviation. Automation could help fill the gaps, writes Marlee Rosen, Principal Industry Market Analyst at Rosen Associates.
Airlines and ground handlers face an ongoing challenge: balancing high-quality, on-time service with cost control. While premium service drives customer satisfaction, it can significantly inflate costs. Conversely, cost-cutting through tight resources may lead to delays and poor customer experiences.
To stay competitive, companies must constantly juggle these trade-offs and adjust strategies to meet shifting market demands. Compounding these challenges is a marked shortage of labour in airport ground operations, particularly among boarding agents and operational staff. Workforce management solutions that optimise personnel and resource deployment are increasingly vital.
This year, 2026, the aviation and aerospace industry is projected to need 480,000 new technicians to maintain aircraft, and more than 350,000 pilots to fly them.
The financial impact of labour scarcity on ground operations
The single largest operational cost and risk stemming from the current aviation labour shortage — both for ground handlers and airlines — is disruption-driven inefficiency.
“Turnaround delays can cascade into missed connections, aircraft idle time, and schedule instability. So, the ‘biggest cost’ is the operational cost of delayed or misallocated resources, which manifests in massive on-the-day performance degradation,” explains Michael Reinkober, Product Manager at INFORM Aviation.
Beyond just identifying the risk, INFORM’s data provides a way to quantify the specific financial drain. “GroundStar quantifies these risks through real-time workflow and simulation data. Their data directly ties staffing shortfalls to measurable impacts,” Reinkober continues.
“For example, each five-minute delay to an aircraft turnaround adds an estimated $600–$2,400 (£435-£1,740) in direct costs (fuel, crew, slot, passenger handling) according to INFORM’s operational models.”
Global passenger traffic is projected to increase by 4.3% per year until 2040, spotlighting labour shortages as a growing bottleneck that directly impacts airline profitability. The maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) market is expected to grow 20% by 2034, but severe labour shortages pose a critical risk to operations, safety, and compliance.
Factors like the aging workforce, training costs exceeding $100,000 (£73,000) per mechanic, and lengthy certifications discourage younger workers from entering the field.
The strategic domino effect of personnel shortages
Personnel shortages are not isolated problems; they create a ‘domino effect’ of inefficiency that impacts the entire airport ecosystem.
“They propagate through a tightly coupled system of aeronautical and non-aeronautical operations,” says Reinkober. “Manual allocation, by failing to anticipate and rebalance these interactions, incurs hidden costs: wasted assets, overtime inefficiencies, reputational damage, and lost predictive control.
“The cumulative effect resembles a supply chain bottleneck, except at an airport, every delay is magnified across multiple stakeholders and time horizons.”
A lack of personnel in one area quickly bleeds into another. Reinkober offers a concrete example: “If, for example, mechanics are short-staffed, maintenance tasks take longer and aircraft occupy parking positions longer than scheduled. Gate allocation and scheduling then ripple outward.
“Arriving flights must wait for available gates, increasing taxi and holding times, and causing downstream disruptions for connecting flights.”
Advanced resource management systems offer benefits for both major centralised airport hubs and smaller decentralised stations.
These systems foster better staffing and more efficient operations. In large-scale settings, automation aids central allocators by streamlining task assignments, enabling quick disruption management, and minimising wasted resources.
Operational agility: manual vs. automated disruption management
When an unexpected absence or disruption occurs, there is a stark difference between a typical manual response and an automated one driven by an intelligent system.
“When operation coordinators and frontline managers notice a problem, like an aircraft arriving late, they individually contact baggage teams, catering, cleaning, fueling, and pushback crews to adjust schedules.
“Every change is managed through calls or messages, often causing knock‑on delays across other flights,” says Reinkober.
In contrast, an automated system can turn a major disruption into a minor, isolated event.
“With an automated response, the system continuously monitors flight statuses, crew availability, equipment positioning, and turnaround schedules in real time.
“When a delay or disruption happens, it automatically recalculates resource assignments and updates everyone’s workflow simultaneously within seconds.”
Optimising staff allocations in real-time
Workforce management tools equipped with intelligent algorithms help staff on-site to identify and address disruptions as they occur, ensuring operations continue with minimal delays. This streamlined communication workflow empowers staff to act proactively, solving problems before they escalate into major issues.
Autonomous ground support equipment (GSE) represents a forward-thinking strategy to maintain operational continuity. In the future, human labour will take on a supervisory role, orchestrating the interaction of integrated autonomous vehicles that handle routine tasks.
By automating task assignments, enabling real-time communication, and providing full visibility into staffing needs, airlines and ground handlers can mitigate labour shortages while maintaining flight schedules effectively.
This proactive approach prevents missed connections, enhances operational efficiency, and improves customer satisfaction. Automation is no longer an option but a necessity in a rapidly evolving aviation industry.
