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Wanted: 1m aviation crew :
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Sep 16, 2010
Wanted: 1m aviation crew
The global commercial aviation industry will need more than a million pilots and maintenance crew in the next 20 years. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM
SINGAPORE - THE global commercial aviation industry will need more than a million pilots and maintenance crew in the next 20 years, with Asia accounting for almost 40 per cent of demand, Boeing said on Thursday.
The US plane maker estimated world demand at 466,650 pilots and 596,500 maintenance personnel from 2010 to 2029, of whom 180,600 pilots and 220,000 mechanics would be needed in Asia.
Boeing estimates that there are currently about 233,000 pilots and more than 100,000 mechanics and engineers working for airlines worldwide.
Within Asia, China will account for nearly 40 per cent of the demand, followed by South-east Asia at around 23 per cent, said Roei Ganzarski, chief customer officer at Boeing Training and Flight Services. North America will need 97,350 pilots and 137,000 maintenance personnel while Europe will require 94,800 and 122,000, respectively.
Mr Ganzarski said at a news conference in Singapore that the industry would have to ramp up the training of pilots as well as aircraft engineers and mechanics to meet the forecast demand without compromising safety standards.
'There is a significant number of people that we're going to have to train and the infrastructure right now in the Asia Pacific is not necessarily a scale that can address this entire requirement,' Mr Ganzarski said. -- AFP
Because of such a demand, pilots and training personnel should not be selling themselves short.