Pilots Needed for Cockpits as Asia Boom Creates Shortage

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Qantas Airways Ltd. and Emirates Airline are awaiting deliveries of about 400 planes to capitalize on Asia’s rising prosperity. Finding pilots is the next job.
Boeing Co. expects the region’s carriers to be the biggest buyers of twin-aisle planes as travel grows in China and India, home to a combined 1.1 billion middle-class people. Asia-Pacific airlines will buy about 8,000 planes worth $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, Airbus SAS said.
Airlines worldwide need an average of 49,900 pilots a year from 2010 to 2030 as fleets expand, yet current training capacity is only 47,025, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal. That is sparking bidding wars as Emirates offers tax-free salaries and four-bedroom villas for captains, and AirAsia Bhd., the region’s biggest budget airline, gives tuition-free training.
India, with estimated growth of 9.4 percent this year, may overtake China as the world’s fastest-growing major economy as early as 2013, according to Morgan Stanley.
This year, the region’s carriers ordered 133 commercial jets with more than 100 seats, or 23 percent of the global total, according to Ascend Worldwide Ltd., a London-based aviation forecaster and data provider.
“There will be a shortage of pilots, and this is going to last for a while because it takes time to produce a good pilot,” said Elmer Pena, president of the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines.
Philippine Airlines Inc. canceled flights in July and August and rebooked passengers after losing 27 pilots to higher paying jobs abroad.

World passenger traffic is expected to increase an average of 4.7 percent a year between 2009 and 2028, according to Airbus.
Emirates is the largest Arab airline with more than 200 planes on order. It aims to recruit 250 pilots this year and double that number in 2011, it said in a statement.
The company, which needs more than $28 billion through 2017 for expansion, sought to recruit in Houston, Madrid and Singapore.
Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s biggest carrier, will recruit 1,000 people, including crew, Chief Operating Officer John Slosar said.
Jetstar, the budget arm of Qantas, plans to recruit 120 more pilots by next summer.
Singapore Airlines Ltd. and AirAsia, based near Kuala Lumpur, set up their own tuition-free training academies. Singapore Air’s flying college graduates about 150 cadet pilots a year, while AirAsia’s facility trains as many as 500 a year.
Graduates must stay with the budget carrier for five years, AirAsia Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes said.
New flight schools also are opening. CAPA is investing at least $125 million to build an aerospace university in India that can train about 300 pilots a year, Somaia said.
The shortage, and hiring by a new crop of budget carriers, also could push wages higher.
06/09/10 Chan Sue Ling/Bloomberg.com