China’s airlines flew 185 million passengers last year, up 34% from two years earlier. That’s about one-quarter of U.S. passenger traffic. Chinese carriers are buying hundreds of new aircraft and strugglingto find pilots.

Tian Baohua, president of the Beijing-based Civil Aviation Management Institute of China said, ‘The current situation is, you need all the pilots to fly to meet the demand.’

The typical captain of a state-owned airline such as China Eastern makes about $45,000 a year and co-pilots half that. By Chinese standards, that’s good money. But comparable aviators at China’s private airlines can earn at least 50% more. Not an excuse but it should be mentioned.

But the problem is only partly pay. Many pilots say their biggest complaint is a punishing work schedule.
Under Chinese regulations, airlines are supposed to give pilots two consecutive days of rest a week. But pilots say managers routinely work them six days a week and deny them other time off, which they argue leads to fatigue and raising safety concerns.

In most other countries the airline management responsible for such action would end up in durance vile.

A 35-year-old China Eastern captain surnamed Wu said, ‘In one seven-month period, I had not even one successive 48 hours off.’

That is totally inexcusable and, if proved true, the management responsible deserves severe disciplinary action. For they are playing with people’s safety in the air and ultimately with their lives.

The pilot concerned recently tendered his resignation out of frustration about his own schedule.

China Eastern, one of the nation’s big three carriers, along with Air China and China Southern, declined to comment.

You can understand that. To admit they operate under those conditions would be to say they were putting passengers lives at risk.

Approximately 200 pilots, including about 70 at China Eastern, have taken steps to end labor contracts with their employers. That’s a fraction of the more than 10,000 pilots in China, but many others would consider quitting or changing carriers if they could afford it.

Most signed lifetime contracts with airlines, which traditionally have footed the bill for pilot school and training. That can run to $100,000 per person.

Reluctant to let their investments go, airlines are demanding that pilots pay as much as $1 million to leave.

Analysts fault airlines and the government for letting things get out of hand.

Plainly something must be done. And done very quickly. Even if it means cutting back on flights.
Source: Baltimore Sun

China Eastern Airlines saw its share price sink 6.8% after the Civil Aviation Administration announced it was fining the company for an incident in which its pilots intentionally disrupted flights, inconveniencing hundreds of passengers.

‘This incident exposed existing weaknesses in our management and taught us a deep lesson,’ the airline said in a statement released after the aviation regulator announced it was fining the company RMB1.5 million ($214,300) for the disruptions.

The Shanghai-based airline earlier said that 21 flights on March 31 in southwestern China’s Yunnan province were intentionally disrupted by pilots who either turned back midway through their flights or landed them and then took off again without letting passengers disembark.

The pilots were reportedly disgruntled over contract and work conditions in a country that bans unauthorized labor organizing.

Aviation regulators announced the fine, and the suspension of some of China Eastern’s flights in Yunnan, after an investigation.

Having been involved in this sort of nonsense in another country the writer has a comment to make. Pilots wrongly are treated as if they, and they alone, manage the aircraft.

This should not be the case.

It is an essential that the management of the aircraft be a team effort — the second pilot is not just along for the ride — and this is now being reflected in the way the flight simulators are set up.

The pilot is God ethos has to change.

The next point is that there just are not enough pilots so they see themselves in a special bargaining position. The answer is more and more simulators and more and more pilots. Flying a modern plane is not a great skill and an unflappable manner is of greater value than a high intelligence.

The use of the term ‘captain’ should be abandoned. They are the pilot of the plane in the same way as a bus driver is the driver of a bus and elevating them to semi-God status always brings trouble. As Qantas in Australia found to its cost. And eventually to the deep distress of a large number of pilots. Who are no longer captains.
Source: Associated Press

There are simply not enough pilots in China. The government, very intelligently, has frozen out about two dozen new airlines simply because there are not the pilots to go around.

Now, Sichuan Airlines has hired 12 pilots from Taiwan. This is the second batch from the island province. Our illustration sees some of them accepting their wings.

The same airline recruited eight pilots on three- to six-year contracts two year ago, becoming the first mainland carrier to employ Taiwan pilots.

Taiwan pilots are flying to and from Nanjing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

According to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) the air transport industry has been growing at an annual rate of 16%,

In 2006, the authorities estimated that the country would need 9,100 more pilots by 2010 to fly the new Boeing and Airbus planes being added to Chinese carriers’ fleets at the rate of 100-150 a year.

The gap between the demand and supply of pilots is likely to be 2,000 by 2010.

China can now produce 1,400 new pilots a year, including the 400-odd that come out of China Civil Aviation Flight College (whose alumni include 90% of the country’s 11,000 pilots.)

The rest were trained by airlines, which prepare students in theories in aviation colleges and universities at home, and send them abroad for flight lessons.

Dearth of pilots is a problem common to all mainland airlines, from the big three — Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — to the private ones. To overcome the problem, they have sought the help of domestic aviation colleges and universities, as well as foreign flight schools.

Professor Li Xiaojin of the Tianjin-based Civil Aviation University of China says at least four carriers — Shenzhen Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, China Southern and China Eastern — have adopted this strategy to get enough pilots for their fleets.

CAAC’s Flight Standard Department official Yang Hu put it very neatly. He said, ‘The problem is that no matter how many pilots are trained every year, each new plane that is delivered needs five pilots and five first officers to ensure a smooth operation.’

Fresh flight school graduates can be employed as first officers for the first six to seven years after, and only after that can they become full-fledged pilots.

But the airlines buying the new Airbuses and Boeings cannot wait that long.

Airbus alone is expected to deliver 372 planes to Chinese airlines from December 2007 to 2012. Boeing is expected to supply another 335 aircraft.

So far, 491 overseas pilots have got their licenses from CAAC to work for Chinese airlines. Some experts say the shortage of pilots won’t last long. The country could have more than enough pilots as early as in five years. This seems grossly over-optimistic. And no suggestion is made as to what should be done during those five years.
Source: China Daily

A pilot shortage is affecting China’s aviation industry, leaving hundreds of new Boeing and Airbus jetliners on order without pilots to fly them.

China will need an average of 2,500 pilots each year for the next two twenty years and it is nowhere near set up to meet the demand.

So foreign pilots are taking command of some Chinese airliners. Aviation Minister Yang Yuanyuan recently declared that the industry is growing ‘too fast.’ He’s cut back daily flights, slowed the launches of start-up airlines and warned that safety must prevail over growth.

China isn’t the only country with a pilot shortage. It is a worldwide problem.

William R. Voss, chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation said, ‘It’s something that is sneaking up on the industry overall because there have always been pilots in the wings.’

Chinese aviation regulators say the nation will need an additional 9,000 or more pilots by 2010, as national airlines add jetliners at the rate of up to 150 a year.

Gao Hongfeng, the deputy head of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China said, ‘But speaking truthfully, we only have the capacity to train about 7,000, leaving us short 2,000 pilots. The shortage of pilots has become an important factor constraining civil aviation’s development.’

Pierre Steffen, vice president of customer services for Airbus China said, ‘We’ve had two occasions with two Chinese airlines where sales deals were accompanied by requests for foreign pilots.

China’s Big Three airlines — Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — are working hard to deal with the pilot shortage.

Air China has reserved land to build a training center in Beijing that’s likely to be the biggest in the world, with 30 full flight simulators. That is one in our illustration.

Nearly 20 start-up airlines wait for approval to operate, and a green light may not come soon. One reason: The start-ups don’t have pilots. Pierre Steffen said, ‘Where do they get their pilots? They can only get them from existing local airlines.’
Source: Kansas City.com

The warning by IATA that the sands of time are running out on the pilot shortage problem is especially important for China in that it has the fastest expanding aviation market and, potentially, the biggest future problem from a severe shortage of pilots.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the apex body of all leading airlines of the world, has warned airlines of a severe pilot shortage unless a concerted effort is made to change training and qualification practices to produce out more pilots every year.

According to IATA’s new estimates the global airline industry will need 17,000 new pilots annually due to expected industry growth and retirements.

Increasing retirement age of pilots to 65 may help but it can’t be the only solution according IATA.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA Director General and CEO, said, ‘It’s time to ring the warning bell. We must re-think pilot training and qualification to further improve safety and increase training capacity.’

He told the FAA International Safety Forum that industry is concerned because ‘There are no global standards for training concepts or regulation. Pilot training has not changed in 60 years — we are still ticking boxes with an emphasis on flight hours.’

IATA supports the competency-based approach of multi-crew pilot licensing (MPL) training programs. Unlike traditional pilot training, MPL focuses from the beginning on training for multi-pilot cockpit working conditions. It also makes better use of simulator technology.

Europe was among the first regions to adopt MPL and Australia and China are moving ahead with implementation. In China, IATA is working with the government to develop the syllabus and incorporate MPL into national regulation.

But even with this effort there will be shortages. Which means that in the ever-contentious relationships between flight crew and management the pilots will start to get the upper hand. Which, inevitably, means increases in salaries and thus in air fares.