A new report from UBS says that airlines could save themselves $35 billion a year if they just trimmed a few unnecessary costs – specifically, the dollars associated with employing those pesky pilots. That’s right, the study finds that driverless planes, like driverless cars, are getting a seat at the transportation innovation table, with UBS analysts believing that the technology required to operate remote-controlled planes could appear as soon as 2025.
Apparently, pilot salaries alone cost the industry $31 billion, and annual training tacks on another $3 billion – not to mention another $1 billion in less efficient flight patterns that could be corrected by a pilotless version of the aircraft.
It looks like the transition to more automation could result in fare cuts for passengers… but here’s the rub: nobody really wants to fly in them. In fact, UBS says that only 17 percent of those surveyed said they’d be willing to fly without a pilot. And with price cuts of an estimated 11 percent of existing fares, can you blame that 83 percent?
While many airplane functions, such as takeoff and landing, already use some kind of automated functionality, it’s still a pretty big leap to go full-on pilotless. In its coverage of the report, The Guardian quoted aviation expert Chris Tarry, who said: “This is such a long way into the future. It’s going to be a very brave airline that takes its pilots off planes.”
