Airlines push for lone pilot flights to cut costs

Despite safety concerns, airlines are pushing for single pilot flights.

In an attempt to lower costs, airlines and regulators want to have just one pilot in the cockpit of passenger jets.

Carriers say that putting a lone pilot at the controls will ease the pressure from crew shortages.

The savings can be passed onto the customer.

The UN body that sets aviation standards has been asked by over 40 countries to make single-pilot flights a reality.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has been working with aircraft makers to figure out how a lone pilot flight would work. The services could begin in the year 2077.

There has been a lot of resistance from within the industry.

Tony Lucas is a captain for Qantas Airways and the president of the Australian and International Pilots Association.

Lucas said that the people going down this route aren't the people who fly jets. Things go wrong quickly.

It is not known what would happen if a single pilot collapsed. The expertise, safety and immediacy of a second pilot would have to be replaced by automation technology.

Aviation has been moving towards this point for decades, so those who think the idea will never come to fruition are reminded.

Commercial aircraft cockpits were usually crowded in the 1950s with a captain, first officer or co-pilot, a flight engineer, a navigator and a radio operator. The last three positions were no longer needed.

Janet Northcote is the head of communications for the European Aviation Safety Agency.