Air China's - Orient Aviation

That, many industry observers believe, is anunderestimation of the demand.Airlines are being confronted by acomplex series of challenges that areworsening their flight deck plight. China ispurchasing aircraft at such a rapid pace itslimited flight training capabilities have nochance of meeting the demand. Carriers areincreasingly, and for the first time openly,turning to international markets to hireexpatriate crew.India, where planes have been groundedbecause there was no one to fly them, isfacing a pilot shortfall crunch. With newairlines emerging virtually every month, andthose already flying placing huge orders fornew planes, it too has turned to foreign pilotsin an attempt to bridge the gap.The ambitious, fast-expanding operatorsof the Middle East are making matters worse,raiding airlines in Asia and elsewhere,offering lucrative, tax-free packages to luretheir cockpit crew away. And in the Asia-Pacific itself, the rapid rise of low-costcarriers (LCCs) has added to the cocktailas they too fill their flight decks with crewpoached from mainline airlines.For some mainstream carriers thepressure has reached critical levels.When Philippine Airlines (PAL) presidentJaime Bautista sat down to talk with OrientAviation recently there was one specifictopic he wanted to raise: the ongoing loss ofhis highly trained cockpit crew to overseascarriers, mostly in India and the Middle East,but also to low-cost carriers (LCCs) closer tohome. They were given lucrative salary andcondition packages to jump ship.China Southern Airlines, the only Mainland carrier to have a flight trainingcentre outside China, is doubling its cadet intake to 250 a year at the ChinaSouthern West Australian Flying College, near Perth“In the past two years nearly 80 pilotshave left out of our cockpit crew of nearly500,” said Bautista.The situation is so worrying he has hadto slow down a US$1 billion expansion planthat involved taking on nine new AirbusA320s between 2006 and 2008. Already,one delivery scheduled this year has beendeferred to next year.“It is not critical, but we are planning toplay it safe at least for the time being untilwe can stabilise the exodus. There is nopoint having the aircraft if you don’t havethe pilots,” he said.Bautista has given his pilots three wagerises in the past 18 months, increasing theirsalaries by 40%, in an effort to stem the tideof pilot departures.He is not alone. In Jakarta, GarudaIndonesia has lost at least 120 pilots to otherairlines since 2003. It still has a surplusand crew have been seconded to MalaysiaAirlines, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, AsianaAirlines in South Korea and low-cost carrier(LCC) AirAsia. But operations director, AriSapari, believes that by next year Garuda willhave a pilot shortfall of up to 83 pilots. Worse,by 2008 the shortage will have increased to169 and to 242 by 2010.There are other signs the dearth ofaviation professionals is worsening. InChina, airlines have, for the first time,begun to publicly declare their intention tohire expatriate crew in an attempt to fill amounting shortfall.There are already foreign pilots flyingfor Chinese airlines – some 70 expatriatesnow have valid licences to work there, 30 ofRecent training developments• A British-Singaporean-Hong Kong joint venture, AlphaAviation Group, plans to spend at least US$32 million openingnine training schools across Asia and the Middle East. Thefirst, in the Philippines, will be operating from July, followed inthe next two to three years by three centres in India, three inChina and two in the Middle East.• Brazilian planemaker, Embraer, is evaluating a potentiallocation for the Asia-Pacific’s first Embraer 170/190 simulator,expected to be in operation during the second half of next year.India is a strong contender.• Europe’s Avions de Transport Regional (ATR) is to establish twotraining centres in Mumbai and Bangalore. They will be jointventures with Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines. More than 100ATR turboprops will be flying in India in the next few years.• Boeing subsidiary, Alteon Training, broke ground on its newregional training centre in Singapore in February. To becompleted by October, it will have the capacity to train morethan 6,000 pilots and flight attendants annually. Alteon alsohas training centres in Brisbane, Australia, Seoul/Incheon,South Korea and Kunming and Tianjin, in China.• Boeing has committed to new pilot training facilities in Indiathrough Alteon after Air India’s US$11 billion order for 68aircraft.These will include Boeing B777, B787 and B737 simulators.Also, it is giving a grant of US$10 million and working with thegovernment to expand ab initio pilot training schools in thecountry.Continued on next pageMAY 2006 ORIENT AVIATION 15