Will freight fly when the pilot is a robot?

© Andrea La Corte

It perhaps comes as little surprise that investors in companies such as ATSG and Atlas don’t appear too worried about the pilot shortage and labour negotiations. According to this Bloomberg article, bank analysts are becoming increasingly excited about the prospect of single-pilot freighter aircraft, leading to a $15bn cost benefit – and, no doubt to autonomous planes (a $35bn better bill). While the story is likely to be different on the passenger side, it has some political backing in cargo. Pilots, however, have different ideas, calling “anything less than two pilots “catastrophic”.