Pilot shortage worldwide: An Australian perspective

Your flight’s been cancelled? You’re not alone – and the situation could be worse.
The culprit this time isn’t high fuel prices. It’s a shortage of pilots – and experts maintain there’s no solution on the horizon.
“We’ve been warning about this for a long time,” says Colin Rodgers, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia.
A prime cause of the aviation staffing pickle, says veteran airman Rodgers, is the cost of training.
“It’s too high – it costs a young person around $100,000 to train to be a pilot.
It’s Rodgers’ belief that pilot training has been a low priority for successive governments.
He urges more training facilities and greater financial help for would-be pilots.
Just how bad is the situation? Regional Express (Rex) estimates Australia will need an additional 1800 pilots over the next two years but will train well under half that number.
Rex is like all big operators in Australia (including QantasLink) who have cancelled some flights.
As jobs open up at large airlines, small airlines often find it very difficult to recruit and keep pilots. (But the drift to big airlines isn’t strong enough to end pilot shortages there.)
Little airlines in remote areas are hardest hit. Analysts expect some to go to the wall over the next 12 months.
Overseas, four United States airlines closed in recent weeks. Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, a long-haul budget carrier serving London and Vancouver, also stopped flying.
In all cases, rising fuel prices were blamed – but industry sources say difficulty obtaining pilots in an employees’ market was also a factor.
In nations such as India, the Philippines and South Africa, an exodus of sorely-needed pilots wanting fatter pay-packets is blamed on poaching by other countries’ airlines.
In Manila, the Philippines capital, the lament is often heard that the country spends considerable sums training pilots – who then leave in droves.
South African pilots, like Australians, often head to well-paying Middle Eastern airlines.
South African aviation websites feature success stories of pilots who have migrated to Australia. Jetstar and V Australia (Virgin Blue’s not-yet-flying international offshoot) have recruited pilots from South Africa, say these websites.
An industry think-tank estimates Asia – where start-up low-cost carriers are fuelling rapid growth – will have a shortfall of 10,000 pilots by 2010.
The booming aviation industries of China and India, in particular, are desperately short of pilots.
China trains about 600 pilots annually but needs more than twice that many to keep up with demand, according to an analysis by the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
India requires 450 pilots immediately and will need 4500 more over the next five years, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Even if extra pilots became available today – and this won’t happen – there wouldn’t be enough to soak up the shortfall, either in Australia or overseas.
08/05/08 Sydney Morning Herald, Australia