Autonomous aircraft could one day save the aviation industry $35 billion a year but airlines may have a hard time finding customers.
Technology to operate a fully automated plane could be ready by 2025 but few people are keen to try it out.
A new report from Swiss bank UBS found that only 17% of surveyed people were willing to board a pilotless plane.
Millennial aged respondents were most open to the idea with nearly a third of the age group prepared to give it a try.
UBS analysts believe ‘acceptance should grow with time.’
"We think it is likely we would initially see cargo the first subsector to adopt new related technologies, with the number of pilots falling from two to one and eventually from one to none," the report said.
UBS polled 8,000 passengers from the US, UK, France, Germany and Australia.
It found US flyers are generally more open to the idea than their European counterparts.
With an impending global pilot shortage and the cost savings to be had, plane maker Boeing recently said it was testing tech which could reduce the cockpit tasks of an airline pilot by using artificial intelligence.
It is estimated 600,000 new pilots will be needed through 2035 globally to meet growing air travel demand.
