Airplane manufacturers are working to adapt jets to reduce the number of pilots needed for long-haul flights and to build new cockpits designed for a single aviator in order to ease a global pilot shortage and cut airline costs.

Airbus SE and Thales SA expect the number of cockpit crew on long-haul flights, typically three or four, could be reduced to two from 2023 thanks to new technology to reduce pilot workload.

"That's not an absurd date. Reducing crew on long-range looks to be the most accessible step because there is another pilot onboard," Jean-Brice Dumont, Airbus head of engineering, told Reuters at the Farnborough Airshow.