The aviation workforce is sending a signal, and most airports are not picking it up.
According to Deloitte's 2024 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey, younger workers increasingly choose employers based on values alignment and visible investment in personal development. LinkedIn data shows Gen Z workers are changing jobs at a rate 134 percent higher than in 2019. And McKinsey research cited in ACI-NA's workforce report found that one-third of workers who left their jobs during the Great Resignation cited lack of career development as a primary reason. These are not abstract trends affecting a specific industry or country, these are the reality airports face trying to attract, retain, and build their futures around the next generation of workers.
Unfortunately, much of the airport industry's workforce strategy still operates as though employees are simply resources to be scheduled, trained for compliance, and replaced when they leave. That approach may have been sustainable when talent was plentiful, but it is no longer sustainable now.
PwC's 2024 aerospace and defense workforce study found that only 7 percent of current employees in the sector are under 25, while 25 percent are aged 56 or older. The implication is clear: airports are simultaneously losing institutional knowledge to retirement and competing for a generation of workers who have fundamentally different expectations about what a job should offer.
So, what do the new generation of airport employees actually want?
The data points to four consistent themes.
Career visibility. Employees want to see where they can go within an organization, what skills and qualifications they need to get there, and evidence that the pathway is real, not aspirational.
Meaningful development. Compliance training checks a regulatory box, but it rarely signals to an employee that their employer is invested in their growth. Structured professional development, role-aligned learning, and recognized credentials carry far more weight.
Role clarity. Employees perform better and stay longer when they understand what their role requires, how success is measured, and how their contribution fits into the broader operation.
Recognition of capability. People want their skills, experience, and progression to be visible, both to themselves and to the people making staffing and promotion decisions.
None of this is revolutionary. These are the same things employees in every industry want. What makes the airport context distinctive is how far behind the sector has fallen in delivering on these expectations. Indeed, many airports still rely on disconnected spreadsheets to track training, job descriptions that have not been updated in years, and career progression frameworks that exist on paper but not in practice.
The consequence is predictable: when employees cannot see a future within an organization, they look for one somewhere else. In an industry where replacing a skilled professional costs between 75 and 300 percent of their annual salary (according to HR consultancy Retensa) the cost of ignoring what employees want is measurable.
The airports that are getting this right share a common approach:
They are connecting workforce data to workforce decisions.
They are making career pathways visible and actionable.
They are aligning training to role requirements rather than compliance minimums.
They are giving employees a clear view of where they stand and where they can go.
These do not need to be large-scale transformation programs but they need to reflect practical, structural changes to how workforce information is managed and made accessible.
The workforce is not asking for the impossible; it is asking for clarity, development, and a reason to stay. The airports that deliver on those expectations will have a significant advantage in attracting and retaining the people they need. The ones that do not will keep spending on recruitment what they could have invested in their people.