Restoring glamour to the cockpit

Efforts to produce sufficient numbers of pilots to crew the fast expanding global airline fleet are being prioritized by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), reports chief correspondent, Tom Ballantyne.

February 1st 2018

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As warnings increase about future cockpit crew shortages, the secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Dr. Fang Liu, said the organization would support efforts to recruit “the best and brightest” candidates to crew and maintain the world’s airline fleet. Read More »

Speaking at the recent ICAO inaugural Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP) Global Summit in Montreal, which was attended by more than 500 education and air transport leaders, the ICAO leader said: “By 2036, some 620,000 pilots will be needed across our global network and no less than 80% of these aviators will be new pilots not flying today.” she said.

“A similar story is playing out with air traffic controllers, cabin crew, maintenance personnel and other skilled technicians.” She called for new global civil aviation, education and research partnerships to develop solutions “to global aviation challenges”.

ICAO’s Liu said modern aircraft carry more than half of the 1.4 billion tourists who travel across international borders each year, a contribution that has established air transport as a veritable economic lifeline for many cities, states and regions.

The ICAO Secretary General wants to develop partnerships between ICAO and education and research institutions that “begin instilling greater aviation awareness at high school and among younger students, especially in young girls”.

Young graduates attracted to aviation in the past now see other careers such as Information technology (IT) as more attractive, especially in terms of salaries, she said. ICAO said the Asia-Pacific alone would need 230,000 pilots by 2030, with a particular requirement for narrow body cockpit crew.

It is forecast that the single aisle aircraft fleet will make up 65% of all airliners flying within the next decade. On average, an airline requires 10 pilots per regional aircraft, 11 pilots per narrow body and 16 for every wide body flying in their fleets.

Boeing has calculated that the global industry will need 637,000 new pilots in the next two decades, or 80 new pilots a day in an industry valued at $15 billion. Global simulator manufacturer and flight training company, Canada’s CAE, said the industry would require 90,000 new pilots by 2027 before expanding at an accelerated rate in the next decade.

The ICAO push for standardized high quality training to increase pilot output comes at a time when several carriers in emerging markets are struggling to fully man their fleets. In Vietnam, one of the region’s fastest growing aviation markets, Jetstar Pacific chief operating officer, Leslie Stephens, said the pilot shortage “is probably the most limiting growth factor we are all going to see moving forward”.

The budget subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines and Qantas can second pilots from its parent carriers to fill gaps in cockpit rosters, but it still has to counter crew poaching by other carriers, including local rival, privately-owned LCC, VietJet.

Vietnam Airlines, which has a goal of a total cockpit crew made up of 80% Vietnamese nationals had only achieved a 49% presence by year end 2017. “That’s how difficult it is to get Vietnamese pilots,” said Stephens.

South Korean airlines have lost dozens of pilots to Chinese carriers that offer more money and benefits than South Korean airlines. The average salary of a Korean Air (KAL) pilot is one third of a senior Chinese airline pilot. In 2016, after a protracted dispute, 140 pilots resigned from KAL. Chinese carriers recruited 40 of them.

Garuda Indonesia has cancelled flights because it cannot fully man its flight roster. So have many airlines on the Mainland and in Thailand and India. In the Middle East, where airlines have long been accused of poaching pilots from rival carriers with very generous salary packages, the Gulf carriers are suffering from their own medicine as pilots depart for even better paid positions elsewhere.

Analysts forecast Chinese airlines will need to hire almost 100 pilots a week for the next 20 years to meet demand. To keep pace with growth, many Mainland airlines are dangling lucrative pay packages before experienced foreign pilots.

Startup carriers barely known outside China are paying about 50% more to their cockpit crews than many senior captains earn at major U.S. and European airlines. They have given recruiters from the U.S. to New Zealand financial carte blanche to find them well qualified cockpit crew.

Pilot union officials in Australia have reported Chinese airlines are offering the country’s domestic pilots salaries Australian carriers cannot match. Australian and International Pilot Association president, Capt. Murray Butt, said B737 training captains can earn upwards of US$600,000 a year in China. “That is going to be difficult for even the major Australian airlines to cope with,” he said.

Global advertisements for B737 captains to fly Chinese domestic carriers are offering starting salaries of $400,000 per year. B737 captains flying with Qantas earn about $235,000. Captains flying the same aircraft type at Virgin Australia, and Tigerair and Jetstar, receive $180,000 and $157,000 per annum, respectively.

Foreign pilots flying B737s on the Mainland are said to receive annual salaries of approximately $325,000 at Suprana Airlines, $314,000 at Xiamen Airlines and $295,000 at Fuzhou Airlines.

At the opposite end of the training spectrum, flight schools and academies across the region have been graduating increasing numbers of young commercial pilots.

There are multiple reasons for the gaps in supply of pilots to airlines, but in 2018, two main factors contributing to healthy pilot demand are: large numbers of baby boomer pilots are approaching retirement age, usually at 65. Their departure from the industry will leave a big hole in the pool of experienced senior pilots, training captains and flight instructors at many airlines.

Secondly, if a cadet does not win a place in a funded airline training program, he or she must pay from US$75,000 to US$140,000 a year for the 24-month course that prepares a trainee for commercial airline flying. For the self-funded cadet, the cost of training can takes years to repay especially as starting salaries at airlines are often low. As a result, the industry loses potential pilots to other professions because they pay better.

Industry analysts said flying has lost its glamour to Google, Apple and tech companies and that the industry must market itself to the young generation if it wants to ensure it has enough qualified pilots to fly its expanded Asia-Pacific and global fleet.

Alsim sells first flight training device in China French flight training company, Alsim, has sold its first AL42 Flight and Navigationn Procedures Trainer (FNPT) to new Mainland flight training company, AXAviation, in Wuhu Anhui province. Anhui AXAviation Tech. Co. Ltd was established in April 2016 as a private limited company with the aims of manufacturing flight simulators for the global market and also to offer pilot training courses.