Kerropi
8th Nov 2005, 13:23
I have read many stories / articles about the pilot shortage in China. What are the truths behind these stories and when can we expect these airlines to recruit low time pilots?
As I understand there are currently no shortage of pilots only a shortage of experienced pilots. Is this again one of those many stories from FTO's
From the Times August 2005:
China and India lure pilots from West to plug gaps
By Angela Jameson, Industrial Correspondent
CHINESE airlines are rushing to recruit qualified European pilots to counter a potential shortfall of 8,000 pilots over the next ten years.
The challenge to European airlines is also coming from India as it scrambles to lure captains from the West.
China’s booming commercial aviation industry is taking off more rapidly than the country can train pilots, and so airlines are being allowed to recruit foreigners for the first time. At least 100 European pilots have been hired by Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Okay Airways, China’s first private operator, this year. More are expected.
Air travel in China has grown rapidly in the past ten years and the expansion is set to soar. Forecasters expect China, in the next two decades, to become the world’s second-largest aviation market after the US. Last year China’s major airlines carried 120 million passengers, a 38 per cent rise on 2003. About 145 new aircraft will be delivered this year and China confirmed a $6 billion (£3.3 billion) contract for 50 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners in June at the Paris air show.
Boeing estimates that China will need more than 2,400 new passenger and freight aircraft costing almost $200 billion over the next two decades.
It will need 55,000 pilots to fly them in the next 20 years and is investing heavily in training schools. However, qualified captains are needed in the short term. Many Europeans have considered working in China, but are put off by the poor pay and conditions.
China pays pilots $2,466 to $6,000 a month, against $8,000 in India and between $8,000 and $18,000 in the UK.
Frances Cooremans, managing director of Contractair, a UK-based supplier of flight crews that has sent captains to China, said: “The pilot shortage in China is drastic. However, there is a shortage of suitably qualified crews worldwide. To entice experienced crews they are going to have to compete with the booming Indian market, which is willing to offer good terms and conditions. Until China simplifies its entry requirements and looks to compete with financial packages on offer as in India, it will be hard to find crews willing to go.”
Bureaucracy hinders recruitment of foreign pilots, who still have to gain Chinese licences. There is also concern that accommodation and benefits, such as flights home, are not sufficient to lure Western pilots. Most of the foreigners flying in China have been recruited from South America and Eastern Europe.
India has also been forced to hire foreign pilots. Air India is understood to have grounded aircraft because of a shortage of pilots. Experts expect India to need up to 4,000 more pilots over the next five years and that training them will cost about $200 million.
Andrew Middleton, head of airline recruitment at Wynnwith Engineering, said: “Recruiting qualified captains is a problem for all major airlines at a time when soaring fuel prices are cutting into their profits.”
BEIJING REFORMS AIRLINE RULES
· China pays pilots $2,466 to $6,000 a month, against $8,000 in India and between $8,000 and $18,000 in the UK.
· China will start to deregulate civil aviation on August 15, government sources indicate. Domestic private investors will be able to invest in six local airlines but not the three largest airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.
And from the Daily Mirror August 2005:
HOLS PILOT SHORTAGE
AIRLINES are struggling to find cockpit crews for the holiday season because of a severe shortage of pilots.
Surging demand for air travel and low investment in training after 9/11 mean there are not enough qualified pilots to meet demand. Aerospace engineers are also in short supply.
Technical recruitment company Wynnwith said: "Airlines have requirements that are unfulfilled because of the shortage.
"Some carriers are struggling to find crews for their charter flights this summer. The worst case is that some airlines won't be able to make all the flights they want."
Foreign pilots are to be drafted into Chinese airlines to relieve the shortage of qualified flyers, according to a soon-to-be-launched policy made by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) on recruiting pilots from abroad.
Overseas pilots will be employed by Chinese carriers after obtaining flight licenses in China Rao Shaowu, director of the CAAC's Flight Standard Department.
CAAC statistics show that about 11,000 pilots are employed to fly more than 770 aircraft.
Industry experts estimate China needs between 1,200 and 1,600 new pilots every year since 2000.
Around 145 new aircraft will be delivered this year in China.
Capacity of Chinese pilot training schools cannot supply enough new pilots."
Daniela Schmidt's newly-obtained commercial pilot license appeared to be of little use after Swissair went bankrupt four years back leaving hundreds of experienced pilots competing for jobs at struggling European airlines.
But China's fast developing economy has given the 25-year-old Swiss a new opportunity as she becomes its first foreign female commercial pilot at the country's first privately-held airline.
For the startup Okay Airways, based in northern Tianjin, the move to recruit young, but eager foreign fliers gives it a chance to compete in the domestic aviation industry, now dominated by three state-backed behemoths.
Schmidt followed her Dutch boyfriend to China last year even though she did not speak or read Putonghua and had never visited the country. ``I didn't think I could find work in China,'' she said. ``But China is giving me an opportunity to fly that I wouldn't have otherwise.'' She is the only woman among six foreign pilots that Okay Airways has recruited as co-pilots amid a local shortage.
The shortage of pilots comes as growth in China's air travel is expected to stay robust. Airbus estimates China will need to order 1,790 passenger and cargo jets, or US$230 billion (HK$1.8 trillion) worth, in the next 20 years. Over a 10-year period, China's passenger and freight traffic should rise about 9 percent annually.
``China is short of captains and co-pilots. We offer young foreign pilots an opportunity to grow,'' Okay chairman and president Liu Jieyin said. He estimated China will be short of some 8,000 pilots in the next 10 years.
Besides Schmidt, the others are a Chinese-Canadian, a Swiss and four pilots from Hong Kong, aged from 25 to 30. They have one thing in common - they have obtained a pilot's license in their home countries but can't find work there.
``A lot of trained pilots in the West can't find an opportunity to put some experience under their belt, while we in China are short of co-pilots, captains and even technicians,'' Liu said.
That makes pilots, who have finished their training, but need more practice to improve their skills, a good fit for China's aviation industry, Liu said, adding that he intends to recruit more foreign pilots in coming months.
But the strategy is also about cost for startup carriers such as Okay Airways, which - with just six leased Boeing 737 aircrafts - is entering a market controlled by giants led by Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
Experienced foreign pilots, a common feature of Middle Eastern airlines like Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, are too expensive for China's smaller airline companies.
These young Okay pilots will take a pay cut. They will receive a salary of about 20,000 yuan (HK$18,860) a month - higher than the 11,000 yuan that Air China offers its co-pilots, but well below any European standard.
But Schmidt's enthusiasm is undimmed. ``I would fly for less, as long as I can fly,'' she said. ``It's been my goal since I have been 15.''
Schmidt's debut is expected in two months, after she completes the training on a Boeing 737-900, the first jet that Okay has leased from South Korea.
On Friday, when Okay Airways' maiden flight takes off from Tianjin to Kunming in the south - one of four routes it is licensed to fly - Schmidt will be in the cockpit watching.
The airline is an experiment altogether. After restructuring China's aviation industry in recent years, Beijing gave the nod last year to allow small private airlines to set up in response to the growing passenger and route demand.
But regulatory restraints may limit the potential of these start ups.
Okay is the first to receive a license from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. Another three, Shanghai-based Spring International Airlines, Chengdu-based Eagle Airlines and Huaxia Airlines in the Gansu province, are awaiting their licenses.
More from the Standard
As I understand there are currently no shortage of pilots only a shortage of experienced pilots. Is this again one of those many stories from FTO's
From the Times August 2005:
China and India lure pilots from West to plug gaps
By Angela Jameson, Industrial Correspondent
CHINESE airlines are rushing to recruit qualified European pilots to counter a potential shortfall of 8,000 pilots over the next ten years.
The challenge to European airlines is also coming from India as it scrambles to lure captains from the West.
China’s booming commercial aviation industry is taking off more rapidly than the country can train pilots, and so airlines are being allowed to recruit foreigners for the first time. At least 100 European pilots have been hired by Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Okay Airways, China’s first private operator, this year. More are expected.
Air travel in China has grown rapidly in the past ten years and the expansion is set to soar. Forecasters expect China, in the next two decades, to become the world’s second-largest aviation market after the US. Last year China’s major airlines carried 120 million passengers, a 38 per cent rise on 2003. About 145 new aircraft will be delivered this year and China confirmed a $6 billion (£3.3 billion) contract for 50 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners in June at the Paris air show.
Boeing estimates that China will need more than 2,400 new passenger and freight aircraft costing almost $200 billion over the next two decades.
It will need 55,000 pilots to fly them in the next 20 years and is investing heavily in training schools. However, qualified captains are needed in the short term. Many Europeans have considered working in China, but are put off by the poor pay and conditions.
China pays pilots $2,466 to $6,000 a month, against $8,000 in India and between $8,000 and $18,000 in the UK.
Frances Cooremans, managing director of Contractair, a UK-based supplier of flight crews that has sent captains to China, said: “The pilot shortage in China is drastic. However, there is a shortage of suitably qualified crews worldwide. To entice experienced crews they are going to have to compete with the booming Indian market, which is willing to offer good terms and conditions. Until China simplifies its entry requirements and looks to compete with financial packages on offer as in India, it will be hard to find crews willing to go.”
Bureaucracy hinders recruitment of foreign pilots, who still have to gain Chinese licences. There is also concern that accommodation and benefits, such as flights home, are not sufficient to lure Western pilots. Most of the foreigners flying in China have been recruited from South America and Eastern Europe.
India has also been forced to hire foreign pilots. Air India is understood to have grounded aircraft because of a shortage of pilots. Experts expect India to need up to 4,000 more pilots over the next five years and that training them will cost about $200 million.
Andrew Middleton, head of airline recruitment at Wynnwith Engineering, said: “Recruiting qualified captains is a problem for all major airlines at a time when soaring fuel prices are cutting into their profits.”
BEIJING REFORMS AIRLINE RULES
· China pays pilots $2,466 to $6,000 a month, against $8,000 in India and between $8,000 and $18,000 in the UK.
· China will start to deregulate civil aviation on August 15, government sources indicate. Domestic private investors will be able to invest in six local airlines but not the three largest airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.
And from the Daily Mirror August 2005:
HOLS PILOT SHORTAGE
AIRLINES are struggling to find cockpit crews for the holiday season because of a severe shortage of pilots.
Surging demand for air travel and low investment in training after 9/11 mean there are not enough qualified pilots to meet demand. Aerospace engineers are also in short supply.
Technical recruitment company Wynnwith said: "Airlines have requirements that are unfulfilled because of the shortage.
"Some carriers are struggling to find crews for their charter flights this summer. The worst case is that some airlines won't be able to make all the flights they want."
Foreign pilots are to be drafted into Chinese airlines to relieve the shortage of qualified flyers, according to a soon-to-be-launched policy made by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) on recruiting pilots from abroad.
Overseas pilots will be employed by Chinese carriers after obtaining flight licenses in China Rao Shaowu, director of the CAAC's Flight Standard Department.
CAAC statistics show that about 11,000 pilots are employed to fly more than 770 aircraft.
Industry experts estimate China needs between 1,200 and 1,600 new pilots every year since 2000.
Around 145 new aircraft will be delivered this year in China.
Capacity of Chinese pilot training schools cannot supply enough new pilots."
Daniela Schmidt's newly-obtained commercial pilot license appeared to be of little use after Swissair went bankrupt four years back leaving hundreds of experienced pilots competing for jobs at struggling European airlines.
But China's fast developing economy has given the 25-year-old Swiss a new opportunity as she becomes its first foreign female commercial pilot at the country's first privately-held airline.
For the startup Okay Airways, based in northern Tianjin, the move to recruit young, but eager foreign fliers gives it a chance to compete in the domestic aviation industry, now dominated by three state-backed behemoths.
Schmidt followed her Dutch boyfriend to China last year even though she did not speak or read Putonghua and had never visited the country. ``I didn't think I could find work in China,'' she said. ``But China is giving me an opportunity to fly that I wouldn't have otherwise.'' She is the only woman among six foreign pilots that Okay Airways has recruited as co-pilots amid a local shortage.
The shortage of pilots comes as growth in China's air travel is expected to stay robust. Airbus estimates China will need to order 1,790 passenger and cargo jets, or US$230 billion (HK$1.8 trillion) worth, in the next 20 years. Over a 10-year period, China's passenger and freight traffic should rise about 9 percent annually.
``China is short of captains and co-pilots. We offer young foreign pilots an opportunity to grow,'' Okay chairman and president Liu Jieyin said. He estimated China will be short of some 8,000 pilots in the next 10 years.
Besides Schmidt, the others are a Chinese-Canadian, a Swiss and four pilots from Hong Kong, aged from 25 to 30. They have one thing in common - they have obtained a pilot's license in their home countries but can't find work there.
``A lot of trained pilots in the West can't find an opportunity to put some experience under their belt, while we in China are short of co-pilots, captains and even technicians,'' Liu said.
That makes pilots, who have finished their training, but need more practice to improve their skills, a good fit for China's aviation industry, Liu said, adding that he intends to recruit more foreign pilots in coming months.
But the strategy is also about cost for startup carriers such as Okay Airways, which - with just six leased Boeing 737 aircrafts - is entering a market controlled by giants led by Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
Experienced foreign pilots, a common feature of Middle Eastern airlines like Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, are too expensive for China's smaller airline companies.
These young Okay pilots will take a pay cut. They will receive a salary of about 20,000 yuan (HK$18,860) a month - higher than the 11,000 yuan that Air China offers its co-pilots, but well below any European standard.
But Schmidt's enthusiasm is undimmed. ``I would fly for less, as long as I can fly,'' she said. ``It's been my goal since I have been 15.''
Schmidt's debut is expected in two months, after she completes the training on a Boeing 737-900, the first jet that Okay has leased from South Korea.
On Friday, when Okay Airways' maiden flight takes off from Tianjin to Kunming in the south - one of four routes it is licensed to fly - Schmidt will be in the cockpit watching.
The airline is an experiment altogether. After restructuring China's aviation industry in recent years, Beijing gave the nod last year to allow small private airlines to set up in response to the growing passenger and route demand.
But regulatory restraints may limit the potential of these start ups.
Okay is the first to receive a license from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. Another three, Shanghai-based Spring International Airlines, Chengdu-based Eagle Airlines and Huaxia Airlines in the Gansu province, are awaiting their licenses.
More from the Standard