Industry Insight Special Report
Training flourishes as pilot demand escalates
Forecasts predict Asia-Pacific airlines will buy between 13,000 and 15,000 new aircraft, worth more than $2 trillion, in the next two decades. Contrary to general thinking, there is growing evidence training organizations will produce enough pilots to crew the region’s airline fleet.
November 1st 2016
Given the rapid growth of Vietnam’s airline industry, it is surprising the country does not have a single pilot training school. Apart from Viet Flight Training JSC (BayViet), which provides aviation ground training in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has no civilian flight training organization. Read More » Yet there is an unabated shortage of qualified flight instructors and flight examination staff at every airline in the nation.
But that is about to change. Early next year, New Zealand’s Eagle Flight Training Ltd, which has been training Vietnamese pilots at its base at Ardmore Airport in Auckland for many years, will open a flight school at Chulai Airport in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province.
“A nation of 92 million people cannot develop its aviation industry without training and examining new pilots in the airspace where domestic airlines operate,” said Eagle Flight Training Ltd’s CEO, Alexander Zapisetskiy.
The project has an ambitious target of training more than 300 pilot students a year by 2020. Students will be taken to Private Pilot Licence level in Vietnam and complete their commercial pilot training in New Zealand.
Vietnam is not alone scrambling for crew to fill in the growing number of cockpits across the region. As airlines struggle to stop their experienced pilots from being lured away by Middle East and Chinese airlines or large budget carriers, meeting demand for qualified pilots has become a challenge for the industry.
Boeing’s latest forecast said 1.5 million pilots and technicians will be required by the industry in the next 20 years, an increase of 10.5% for pilots and 11.3% for technicians, over the company’s forecast 12 months ago. An estimated 40% of them will be needed in Asia-Pacific.
Most of the region’s major full-service airlines have their own highly efficient pilot training programs, although they too are losing some experienced pilots to better paying jobs in the Gulf and on the Mainland.
However, training organizations are expanding their operations in the region, the world’s fastest growing aviation market, with Boeing and Airbus leading the way and many smaller training companies setting up in their wake.
Last year, China’s Sichuan Haite High-Tech Co. Ltd, part of the Chengdu HAITE Group set up HAITE Singapore, a 21,000 square metre training centre at Changi Business Park. It is the largest independent aircraft pilot training centre in Singapore and is HAITE’s first aviation training facility outside China.
It trains pilots and aviation-related crews,, including cadets from commercial airlines, that do not operate have their own simulators or academies. “Our first training session commenced last May and we have been gradually increasing our training volume ever since. We have trained 1,500 air crew from airlines and training organizations in ASEAN,” said the managing director of HAITE Singapore, Marc Nadeau.
HAITE is evaluating the market with the intention of adding training devices to its network of centres, including Singapore. HAITE Singapore Aviation Training Centre is equipped with a B737-800W Full Flight Simulator, an A320 Full Flight Simulator and an A320 Integrated Procedure Trainer (IPT).
In the next four years, it intends to progressively expand to its full seven-bay capacity. By then, the facility could provide more than 40,000 hours of training per year and attract up to US$24 million in direct and indirect revenue annually for the Singapore economy.
In the Philippines, the Alpha Aviation Group (AAG) is increasing its investment at its subsidiary, AAG Philippines, with the delivery of a new Airbus A320 Fixed Based Simulator (FBS) acquired from manufacturer Multi Pilot Simulation. The multi-million dollar MPS A320 FBS, the first to be operated in Southeast Asia, will be ready for use by AAG Philippines 240 cadets and airline partners.
AAG Philippine’s new simulator is not unique. A recent research report by Stratistics MRC said the global flight simulator market is expected to grow from $5.89 billion in 2015 to $8.03 billion by 2022, with the number of simulators in Asia-Pacific to grow faster than any other region.
| New Zealand joint venture to train Vietnamese aircraft technicians The Eagle Flight Training Ltd joint venture in Vietnam will not be limited to producing qualified pilots. A year ago, the company signed a Business Cooperation Agreement with Vietnam’s Aerospace Engineering Services JSC (AESC). Established in 2008, AESC is the first private company approved and certified by the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) as a VAR 145 Maintenance Organization. After five years of development, it has expanded its business to include aviation consulting and aviation training. AESC will be responsible for aircraft maintenance and aviation technician training under the joint agreement. “It will be a highly diverse operation with a mixture of flight instructors and managers from New Zealand and Vietnam. This project will require strong support from the aviation authorities of both countries, said Eagle Flight Training Ltd CEO, Alexander Zapisetskiy. “We also expect collaboration with BayViet, domestic airlines and the ministries of transport and education in Vietnam. Our Vietnamese mission is to replicate the successful New Zealand model of pilot training.” |
