You would think that CX can see the same thing happening in a few years when the new joiners have enough hours to leave.
HAECO Chairman Christopher Pratt said: “The overall labour market in Hong Kong continues to be tight. HAECO in particular continues to suffer from a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour. The effect on HAECO’s aircraft maintenance capacity is particularly severe because of the need to transfer staff from airframe maintenance to line maintenance to support the growth of the latter business.”
Chris said that the rate of attrition has slowed, “but it takes a long time to train new staff to reach the required standard. The Company is working closely with local educational institutions to promote career and job opportunities in the aircraft maintenance industry, and continues to seek support from the government for the importation on contract of overseas qualified engineers and mechanics to ease constraints on the availability of people with such skills in the local labour market.”
The Chairman said that the outlook is challenging. “Forward bookings for HAECO’s airframe maintenance services in Hong Kong are weak by historical standards and are in any event constrained by the shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour. Demand for line maintenance services is expected to continue to grow in line with the growth of aircraft movements at Hong Kong International Airport, despite an uncertain outlook for movements of cargo aircraft.”
HAECO press release