Pilots are Now in Demand

According to predictions for growth in the Asia Pacific aviation industry, chances toward growth are impressive, thus leading to need for more pilots.

There will be a 35% increase in demand for air travel and up to 13,000 new planes will be needed. For the next two decades this growth is going to be very impressive, but it puts into the world's mind a question of manpower. With bigger growth comes bigger responsibilities, and bigger need for pilots and technicians to fly the planes and maintain them.

Bony Sharma, the vice president of Mil-Com Aerospace Group (a Singapore-based aviation training company), said in regard to the issue, "The airlines say, 'OK, we've just bought a bunch of airplanes and we've put in all our funding into the airplane.' Now where does the funding come in to train the pilots, to train the engineers, to train even the management people, to keep these airplanes operational and safe and flying? That's the biggest challenge that we're facing." Mil-Com is responsible for training numerous Asia-based airlines, including the Vietnamese carrier VietJet Air.

The carrier recently signed a $6.4 billion contract with Airbus for 63 new single-aisle A320 planes this February, but as with other Asia Pacific's low cost carriers, they are having problems finding enough manpower to suffice for the number of flights -- these include pilots. Sharma explained, "All the airlines in Vietnam are heavily dependent on international pilots. They're competing from the same pool of pilots as the Middle East, with the growth of Singapore, the growth of AirAsia. It's that same pool that all these airlines are competing for, so it's a big challenge in Vietnam." He is worried that even if they set up 100 airplane flying schools "tomorrow", the number wouldn't be enough to suffice for the extreme shortage of pilots.

And indeed, this shortage is not just apparent in Vietnam. Back in August 2013, the Boeing Pilot and Technical Market Outlook for 2013-2032 released forecasts reading, "nearly half a million new commercial airline pilots will be needed to fly all the new airplanes entering the world fleet over the next 20 years." The report also mentioned this growth and demand in air travel means 192,300 new pilots will be required by 2032, including 77,400 in China.

As a solution, DiSTI President Joseph Swinski says his company is utilizing the digital age in giving schools a platform students can relate to, whilst providing good training quality. DiSTI's global sales manager Christopher Giordano assured that by using their software, people "can train more cheaply, more quickly and more effectively."

Unfortunately, even with this new development in simulation-based pilot certification training, actual increase in the number of pilots is yet to be seen.