Filipino pilots and captains

The Philippines would need hundreds of new pilots over the next few years to support the rapid expansion of the airline industry amid the exodus of experienced Filipino pilots for foreign carriers.

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific said that in 2008 alone, it would recruit 100 new pilots who will man the company’s newly purchased aircraft.

Captain Johnny Andrews, vice president for flight operations of Philippine Airlines, said several Asian airlines have been trying to recruit Filipino pilots, with tempting offers of doubling their salaries. For example, he said that some Korean airlines were offering monthly salaries of $10,000 to $15,000, compared to an average of $4,000 to $6,000 that Filipino pilots receive.

The air transport industry estimated that more than 120 Filipino pilots, mostly PAL captains, have left the country to join foreign airlines since 2000. Andrews said that at present, PAL has 500 pilots, but only half were fully trained as captains.

He said that PAL was able to prevent more pilots from leaving the country by offering more competitive wages. “Since last year, we have alleviated the problem by adjusting the pay of pilots and providing more benefits,” he said.

While the pilot population slightly increased, when the retirement age of pilots was extended from 60 years to 65 years, Andrews said there are still challenges that the industry faces. “We cannot relax, we still see some problems,” he said, adding that the recent policy of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requiring international pilots to have minimum understanding of the English language could put more pressure on Philippine pilot population.

He said this may force airlines in China , Japan and Korea to look at the Philippines as the source of English-proficient pilots who can meet the ICAO requirements. “This is another threat we are facing,” he said.

The Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) said a shortage of highly trained pilots threatens the continuous growth of the global air transport industry, as the industry may need to recruit some 17,000 new pilots annually because of the expected industry growth and retirements.
IATA estimated that by 2011, the number of air passenger will exceed 2.75 billion and the world’s airlines will move 36 million tonnes of air cargo. “That’s 620 million more passengers and 7.5 million more tonnes of cargo than the industry handled in 2006,” the IATA said.

In 2007, the industry is estimated to have experienced a 5.9 percent growth in passenger traffic and 8.4 percent growth in revenues, despite the increase in oil prices which averaged US$73 per barrel last year.

In the Philippines , growth was even more spectacular. Budget carrier Cebu Pacific saw its passenger volume surge 58 percent year-on-year to over 5.49 million passengers in 2007. PAL and its sister firm Air Philippines also reported more than 5 million domestic passengers alone as of December 21, 2007.
PAL is buying six new Boeing 777, to be delivered September 2009. Andrews said PAL would be able to meet its pilot requirements until the completion of its expansion program, as long as there are no more captains leaving the company.

According to Clark Aviation, a British-owned pilot training institute based in Clark Field, Pampanga, the Philippines would be in need of more than 300 new pilots to provide enough coverage for all the new Airbus 320 planes to be delivered to local carriers during the period. Clark Aviation introduced the streamlined multi-crew pilot licence (MPL) training scheme in the country.

The company is currently training 150 cadets from all over the world in Clark on the new MPL scheme, including 65 cadets for Cebu Pacific.

Cebu Pacific plans to expand its fleet of A320/319 to include 29 aircraft, plus the new ATR planes from France that will service Caticlan. The Gokongwei-owned carrier tapped the services of Clark Aviation to undertake an intensive 12-month residential training program for its candidates for pilots.

Cebu Pacific spokesperson Candice Iyog said that because of this partnership with Clark Aviation, “Cebu Pacific does not feel the shortage of pilots at this point.”

The budget carrier, which is now one of the five largest in Asia , currently has 123 pilots in flight operations team and plans to recruit another 100 pilots this year. Iyog said the company offers a competitive compensation and benefit structure in the local market.” Our fun and team-focused culture also keep our employees attuned to stay,” she said.

To enable airlines to meet their pilot requirements, IATA encouraged companies to put more resources in training. “It’s time to ring the warning bell. We must re-think pilot training and qualification to further improve safety and increase training capacity,” said IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani.