Asia Remains the Hottest Spot in Terms of Aviation Staff Demand

April 24, 2015
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Asia Pacific airlines now account for about a third of global air passenger traffic and that number is expected to continue increasing for at least the next couple of decades.

Each week, a total of 28 brand new aircraft roll off the assembly lines of major manufacturers. Any given month about 50% of those aircraft produced by Airbus and Boeing ­are being sent to the Asia-Pacific region, according to Flightglobal. Cornered by this remarkable pace, Asian carriers need to hunt down from 10 to 12 pilots for each new plane. And as this issue is yet to be resolved by the local CAAs, airlines and governments, it does make one wonder, whether there is a way out of this seemingly unsolvable staff shortage equation.

Players in the region have made diverse attempts at tackling the issue of staff shortage. Nevertheless, any of them is yet to produce tangible results. Moreover, some of the endeavours have only turned the already worrisome safety issues of the region into huge problems. Japan, for example, has recently introduced new pilot age limits. It must be pointed out, that this has been done for the second time in just over a decade. The new brim is now the age of 67.  This approach, however, even with certain restrictions applicable to older pilots, seems like a bad idea in the industry where 80% of all accidents can still be attributed to human error. And as the situation is not getting better, there’s a need to come up with a viable solution and it must be done in no time.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Asia Pacific airlines now account for about a third of global air passenger traffic and that number is expected to continue increasing for at least the next couple of decades. The orders for new aircraft already placed by local carriers currently stand at 1 600 which actually exceeds the existing operated fleet at the moment. However, as this rapid expansion continues, many experts fear that soon there will be literally no experienced workforce to pilot or maintain the delivered machines.

In the meantime, last year the region was subject to rising levels of attention from the global media due to multiple accidents attributed to human factor in aviation. However, market expansion seems to be on top of all the local carriers’ minds, sometimes even pushing safety concerns into the shadow.

“The extraordinary expansion of aviation in the Asia-Pacific, sadly, has not been accompanied with the same attention to safety standards and clear solutions to the HR crisis. While some carriers were able to somewhat fill the gap by attracting foreign talent with competitive salaries in the past, nowadays, other regions (e.g., the Middle East) are way more appealing to expat aircrew for that matter,” explains Skaiste Knyzaite, the CEO of AviationCV.com. “Nonetheless, the region could still be a good starting point for pilots. For example, the Vietnam’s VietJet Air expat Airbus A320 first officers today can transition to captains in as little as 1-2 years’ time, whereas in the US the process could sometimes take more than 15 years. However, while definitely being a great kick-off for expats, the solution for local workforce deficiency is still nowhere to be found. Without it, no one knows for how long the region can maintain the upward trend.”

According to the executive, while many solutions have been suggested, this gap can only truly be filled with local workforce if local CAAs, training facilities and carriers manage to arrive at a unified solution to this crisis. Otherwise, the region’s growth will be left resting on the shoulders of forever growing force of internationals. In addition to that, the future is definitely looking grim for the development of local pilots, as the number of training centres is not nearly sufficient, even after the relatively recently introduced new facilities, such as Haite, which has been just established in Singapore.

“In the meantime, as the community anticipates a unified solution from the region’s aviation industry, the main HR-related load remains to be carried by recruitment providers, considering, of course, they are experienced and trusted enough by carriers worldwide,” concludes Skaiste Knyzaite, the CEO of AviationCV.com.

About AviationCV.com:

AviationCV.com, part of aviation business group Avia Solutions Group, is the only pilot leasing company in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. It offers flight crew resourcing and training/retraining as well as short-term and long-term crew lease services to airlines in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. For more information about AviationCV.com please visit www.aviationcv.com