LAFAYETTE, Ind. — President Donald Trump has said he wants to bolster manufacturing jobs and other technical employment in the United States. But in the aviation industry, finding skilled workers to make airplanes and engines — and maintaining those jobs for years to come — has been a struggle.The average age of a certified aircraft mechanic in the U.S. is 54, and 40% of them are over the age of 60, according to a joint 2024 report from the Aviation Technician Education Council and consulting firm Oliver Wyman, which cites Federal Aviation Administration data. The U.S. will be short 25,000 aircraft technicians by 2028, according to the report.”A lot of them were hired on in the ’80s and early ’90s. You just start doing some math and you start saying at some point they’re going to retire,” said American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour, who oversees the carrier’s more than 6,000 daily flights.To boost their ranks, airlines and big manufacturers of airplanes and their thousands of components are trying to get more younger people interested in the field.’Lost a lot of talent’Technicians work on an engine at GE Aerospace’s engine shop in Lafayette, Indiana.Leslie Josephs/CNBCThe industry was already facing a retirement wave when Covid hit, and companies cut or offered buyouts to experienced workers — from those who build aircraft to those who maintain them to keep flying.”People forget that the aerospace industry was in a pretty serious ramp at the time pre-Covid. And then frankly, of course overnight we went from ramping to zero demand over time. And so we lost a lot of talent,” said Christian Meisner, GE Aerospace’s chief human resources officer.GE, along with its French joint venture partner Safran, makes the bestselling engines that power Boeing and Airbus top-selling jetliners, and has been ramping up hiring, though it is also dependent on a web of smaller suppliers that have also been getting back up to speed since the pandemic.Meisner said that the company has a strong retention rate and that some employees earn their FAA licenses to work on airplane engines or airframes on the job. At GE’s engine plant in Lafayette, Indiana, about an hour outside of Indianapolis, base pay averages between $80,000 and $90,000 a year, based on qualifications and experience, the company said.A worker at GE Aerospace’s Lafayette, Ind. engine plantLeslie Josephs/CNBCMedian pay for aircraft technicians or mechanics was $79,140 a year in the U.S. in 2024, compared with a nationwide median income of $49,500, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency projects 13,400 job openings in the field each year over the next decade.American’s Seymour said that with …
