Training
Attracting the bedazzled google generation to the cockpit
Airlines and manufacturers must forge different partnerships to meet the region’s crew and maintenance requirements said Boeing in its latest Asia-Pacific training forecast.
October 1st 2015
We’re not moving fast enough, says Boeing’s vice president flight services, Sherry Carbary, of the industry’s commitment to training the 226,000 new pilots and 238,000 new technicians needed to fly and service the Asia Pacific fleet in the next two decades. Read More »
Speaking after the release of Boeing’s 2015 Pilot & Technician Outlook for the Asia-Pacific last month, when the company announced a 5% increase in demand for pilots and technicians over last year, Carbary said the giant aerospace company could not do it alone when it came to meeting the region’s airline personnel training targets.
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| 'There are insufficient numbers of flight schools and ab initio training in the region, which is why so many Asian cadets have to go to the U.S., Europe or Australia for their training' |
| Sherry Carbary Vice president Boeing flight services |
“This has to be a partnership. All the airlines, aircraft manufacturers and simulator manufacturers must work with governments, high schools and universities to ensure we have a robust pipeline of aviation professionals to serve this growing market,” she said.
“The ability is there, but we are probably not moving fast enough,” she said. She advocated a public-private partnership (PPP) approach that ensured flight schools were more locally based, had global quality standards and focused specifically on meeting future Asia-Pacific demand.
Several challenges exist for airline crew training in the region, Boeing believed. They included standardization of training and pilot and technical licencing, managing the imbalance between supply in first world centres such as Singapore and emerging Indonesia, building more physical flight schools that offer, where possible, cadet ab initio training, and attracting talented young people to aviation in the world of Google, Facebook and Apple.
“The major airlines in China do all of their own training and have significant training facilities. But there are insufficient numbers of flight schools and ab initio training in the region, which is why so many Asian cadets have to go to the U.S., Europe or Australia for their training,” Carbary said.
In the Asia-Pacific budget airline sector, the airlines are following the Southwest Airlines [in the U.S.] model, which looks to others to help them train crews and maintenance engineers. “This is a role Boeing wants to fill. That’s where we (Boeing) intend to be there for them,” Carbary said.
The plane manufacturer recently forecast 38,000 new aircraft worth $5.6 trillion worldwide would be needed to 2034, with nearly 40% of these airplanes bound for the Asia-Pacific. About 70% of deliveries will be single-aisle jets, which underscored the continuing rapid growth of LCCs.
To keep them flying and maintained, Carbary said 100,000 pilots and 106,000 technicians would be needed in China alone. Southeast Asia will require 57,000 pilots and 60,000 technicians; South Asia (principally India) 40,000 pilots and 37,000 technicians; Northeast Asia (mainly Japan and Korea) 17,000 pilots and 22,000 technicians and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands) 12,000 pilots and 13,000 technicians.
Carbary said recruiting more women into the industry would be one way of meeting training targets. “In the U.S., only 6% of pilots are women. Statistics only exist for the U.S., but I think it’s even lower around the world,” she said.
“We should be looking a lot more at women and what they can bring to the industry. It’s a tough business. You have to invest more than a year to become a pilot. In some cases, women are raising families and can’t travel as much as their male colleagues. But that’s a false barrier. Women can provide a huge role in the industry by becoming short-haul pilots.”
Another issue for aerospace is the allure of social media companies and their hi-tech partners. “We are competing for kids who are growing up with smart phones and tablets. They are looking at Google, Microsoft and Apple and high tech industries like Samsung for their careers,” said Carbary.
“We can do a great job in marketing and branding the aviation industry as the most high tech industry there is. Building and engineering the planes that Boeing and Airbus are producing won’t get any more high tech than that.
“When you look at a flight deck of a B787 and you’re a pilot there’s nothing more exciting than to be flying that airplane. As a [B787] mechanic you’re no longer working on the mechanical part of the airplane, you’re basically a software engineer as well troubleshooting on what’s going wrong with the systems on the airplane.
“So it is a really cool place to be if I’m somebody starting out and looking at a career.”
A separate obstable to cross region training flexibility is the imbalance in pilots and engineers between countries because of disparate regulations and licence requirements. There is an oversupply of pilots in Singapore, yet in India the authorities are considering a reduction in the time required for foreign pilots to receive licences to fly because of a shortage of commanders.
It takes more than 60 days to be granted a Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation (FATA) licence in India, mainly because foreign pilots must receive a security clearance before they can crew an airline.
Boeing is expanding its training school network in the region, including the planned installation of a B737NG (next generation) simulator at its Shanghai campus by year end, to meet the demand for pilots for China’s expanding low-cost carrier business.
