BANANASBANANAS
31st Oct 2006, 11:06
I am currently on a 3 day layover in China and came across the following article in todays China Daily "Business Weekly."
The guts of the article is that China is going to be 10,000 (Ten Thousand) pilots short in the next 5 years.
Mods, please move if you think another forum is more appropriate:
Empty cockpits
By LU HAOTING(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-30 06:27
A couple of years ago, it was not news if a pilot resigned from an airline in China. And such resignations were not met with lawsuits between the airline and the pilot.
Until four months ago, nobody had imagined a pilot graduating from a private pilot training school could eventually fly passenger jets in China.
These situations, however, are becoming more common because of a problem threatening the nation's booming aviation industry: pilot shortage.
The reason for the problem is simple. China's commercial aviation industry is taking off faster than the country can train pilots.
"The Chinese commercial aviation industry has been growing 12-14 per cent annually," said Zheng Xiaoyong, president of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China (CAFUC), in China Youth Daily. "There is likely to be a pilot shortage of 10,000 in the next five years and the shortage could grow to 18,000 by 2015."
About 11,000 pilots currently serve commercial airlines in China, flying nearly 900 aircraft, according to statistics from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC). Nearly 1,000 of them are nearing retirement age. China will add about 100 aircraft annually in the next five years, CAAC says. About 2,000 extra pilots will be needed every year to cope with the expanded fleets.
The market is demanding more new pilots than it can train. The Sichuan-based CAFUC, which trains 90 per cent of China's pilots, is able to send out about 600 well-trained pilots per year. A small number of pilots graduate from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Civil Aviation University of China. There are also some army men transferred from the air force.
"It is inevitable to see drastic pilot shortage in the coming years," Zheng says.
Zheng's university doubled its enrollment to 1,200 students this year. The 50-year-old university, with 107 trainer jets, plans to add 55 new trainers with an investment of 1 billion yuan (US$126 million) in the near future.
Private schools
The undersupply of pilots has made the pilot training market attractive to private investors. The Chinese Government gave the green light to private pilot training schools in November 2003.
China's first privately-owned pilot training school, Beijing PanAm International Aviation Academy, was established at the beginning of 2004. It is the first in China to adopt a Euro-American style training syllabus, teaching and operation system. It is also the first to use English as the language of instruction and foreign teaching materials throughout the whole process. Finally, it's the first to employ all flight instructors from abroad.
With 31 trainer aircraft, PanAm Aviation is able to train 300 students at one time. It now has about 240 students. The first group of pilots graduated in June and they work for Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
But opening a private pilot training school is by no means easy in China.
"It is very difficult. From the establishment of the school to enrolling new students, every step was difficult," says Li Weijian, president of PanAm Aviation.
The import tariff of trainer jets is 21 per cent, much higher than the 5-6 per cent tariff on large aircraft. Meanwhile, the school has to cope with high costs for fuel, for jet landing and take-off, and strict air space regulation in China.
Despite the challenges, the key driving force behind PanAm Aviation may be the pilot shortage that threatens the industry.
The private pilot training school has signed flight-training agreements with 12 Chinese airlines. It has two flight training bases, one in Zhengding Airport of Hebei Province and the other in Binzhou Airport of Shandong Province. PanAm Aviation plans to acquire a general aviation airport in Beijing in the next three years.
But pilot training schools only produce "junior" pilots. A new graduate still has a long way to go to become a real civil flight pilot. It takes half a year of extra training for them to become assistant pilots. To become a captain, it takes another five to eight years.
Job-hopping
Some airlines have opened their cockpits to foreign pilots. But foreigners must pass strict examination to obtain their licences and they are usually not allowed to fly international routes. Also, the recruitment of overseas pilots is occurring on a scale too small to meet the growing demand.
To save time and cost of training, some Chinese airlines compete to offer better salaries and benefits to lure native pilots from their rivals. The competition has led to a new problem: job-hopping.
Some industry insiders say the CAAC initially encouraged pilots to transfer to different airlines nationwide to facilitate exchanges and competition among the airline industry. Previously pilots were only given local certificates that allowed them to work in a certain region. But now they are given national certificates that allow them to work across the country.
In May last year the CAAC and four other related ministries jointly introduced a regulation to "ensure stability of the pilot teams in the Chinese civil aviation." The rules state that the new employer, to recruit pilots, should consult with the present employer and pay between 700,000 yuan and 2.1 million yuan (US$88,607-$265,823) to the former employer in compensation.
In reality, airlines impose much larger compensation charges on pilots who quit to work for competing airlines to prevent talent drainage. More than 100 pilots have submitted resignations to their employers since 2004 and were asked to compensate at least 5 million yuan (US$632,911) each. The compensation for a captain could reach 12 million yuan (US$1.5 million).
China's labour-arbitration authorities have been busy settling disputes between the pilots and their original employers over job-hopping charges.
Insiders say only about 20 pilots have successfully jumped to their ideal new employers, while the rest are still trapped in labour arbitration or lawsuits.
(China Daily 10/30/2006 page6 :ok:
The guts of the article is that China is going to be 10,000 (Ten Thousand) pilots short in the next 5 years.
Mods, please move if you think another forum is more appropriate:
Empty cockpits
By LU HAOTING(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-30 06:27
A couple of years ago, it was not news if a pilot resigned from an airline in China. And such resignations were not met with lawsuits between the airline and the pilot.
Until four months ago, nobody had imagined a pilot graduating from a private pilot training school could eventually fly passenger jets in China.
These situations, however, are becoming more common because of a problem threatening the nation's booming aviation industry: pilot shortage.
The reason for the problem is simple. China's commercial aviation industry is taking off faster than the country can train pilots.
"The Chinese commercial aviation industry has been growing 12-14 per cent annually," said Zheng Xiaoyong, president of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China (CAFUC), in China Youth Daily. "There is likely to be a pilot shortage of 10,000 in the next five years and the shortage could grow to 18,000 by 2015."
About 11,000 pilots currently serve commercial airlines in China, flying nearly 900 aircraft, according to statistics from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC). Nearly 1,000 of them are nearing retirement age. China will add about 100 aircraft annually in the next five years, CAAC says. About 2,000 extra pilots will be needed every year to cope with the expanded fleets.
The market is demanding more new pilots than it can train. The Sichuan-based CAFUC, which trains 90 per cent of China's pilots, is able to send out about 600 well-trained pilots per year. A small number of pilots graduate from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Civil Aviation University of China. There are also some army men transferred from the air force.
"It is inevitable to see drastic pilot shortage in the coming years," Zheng says.
Zheng's university doubled its enrollment to 1,200 students this year. The 50-year-old university, with 107 trainer jets, plans to add 55 new trainers with an investment of 1 billion yuan (US$126 million) in the near future.
Private schools
The undersupply of pilots has made the pilot training market attractive to private investors. The Chinese Government gave the green light to private pilot training schools in November 2003.
China's first privately-owned pilot training school, Beijing PanAm International Aviation Academy, was established at the beginning of 2004. It is the first in China to adopt a Euro-American style training syllabus, teaching and operation system. It is also the first to use English as the language of instruction and foreign teaching materials throughout the whole process. Finally, it's the first to employ all flight instructors from abroad.
With 31 trainer aircraft, PanAm Aviation is able to train 300 students at one time. It now has about 240 students. The first group of pilots graduated in June and they work for Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
But opening a private pilot training school is by no means easy in China.
"It is very difficult. From the establishment of the school to enrolling new students, every step was difficult," says Li Weijian, president of PanAm Aviation.
The import tariff of trainer jets is 21 per cent, much higher than the 5-6 per cent tariff on large aircraft. Meanwhile, the school has to cope with high costs for fuel, for jet landing and take-off, and strict air space regulation in China.
Despite the challenges, the key driving force behind PanAm Aviation may be the pilot shortage that threatens the industry.
The private pilot training school has signed flight-training agreements with 12 Chinese airlines. It has two flight training bases, one in Zhengding Airport of Hebei Province and the other in Binzhou Airport of Shandong Province. PanAm Aviation plans to acquire a general aviation airport in Beijing in the next three years.
But pilot training schools only produce "junior" pilots. A new graduate still has a long way to go to become a real civil flight pilot. It takes half a year of extra training for them to become assistant pilots. To become a captain, it takes another five to eight years.
Job-hopping
Some airlines have opened their cockpits to foreign pilots. But foreigners must pass strict examination to obtain their licences and they are usually not allowed to fly international routes. Also, the recruitment of overseas pilots is occurring on a scale too small to meet the growing demand.
To save time and cost of training, some Chinese airlines compete to offer better salaries and benefits to lure native pilots from their rivals. The competition has led to a new problem: job-hopping.
Some industry insiders say the CAAC initially encouraged pilots to transfer to different airlines nationwide to facilitate exchanges and competition among the airline industry. Previously pilots were only given local certificates that allowed them to work in a certain region. But now they are given national certificates that allow them to work across the country.
In May last year the CAAC and four other related ministries jointly introduced a regulation to "ensure stability of the pilot teams in the Chinese civil aviation." The rules state that the new employer, to recruit pilots, should consult with the present employer and pay between 700,000 yuan and 2.1 million yuan (US$88,607-$265,823) to the former employer in compensation.
In reality, airlines impose much larger compensation charges on pilots who quit to work for competing airlines to prevent talent drainage. More than 100 pilots have submitted resignations to their employers since 2004 and were asked to compensate at least 5 million yuan (US$632,911) each. The compensation for a captain could reach 12 million yuan (US$1.5 million).
China's labour-arbitration authorities have been busy settling disputes between the pilots and their original employers over job-hopping charges.
Insiders say only about 20 pilots have successfully jumped to their ideal new employers, while the rest are still trapped in labour arbitration or lawsuits.
(China Daily 10/30/2006 page6 :ok: