China’s pilot shortage has led the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to standardise and update regulations to help local carriers wishing to employ foreign aircrew. “Before we allowed foreign pilots to come to China, but there were no standard procedures,” says a Beijing official in the CAAC’s flight standards department.
In China, airlines wishing to employ foreign pilots go through the local CAAC office for the region in which they are located, so standardising regulations means the CAAC’s offices across the country will have exactly the same set of regulations.
The official also says the previous regulations were introduced in the early 1990s and are now considered “old”. The new standardised regulations spell out more clearly what is required from airlines and foreign pilots, he adds.
Many of the regulations are unchanged, but there are some amendments, such as “a more complete system for testing pilots”. Previously, pilots were tested on theory and also did flight checks, but now the tests have been standardised and are in English in addition to Chinese.
China is experiencing a pilot shortage because the country’s training schools have failed to keep up with demand from fast-growing airlines.
Today there are 70-80 foreign pilots employed in China and these mostly work for second-tier carriers such as Shenzhen Airlines and start-up carriers such as Okay Airways.
“Because there is a shortage of pilots in China, many airlines want to employ foreign pilots, so there will be more in China in future,” says the CAAC official.
Correction: In a recent article we incorrectly stated that Debis Airfinance has up to 500 aircraft available across its bases in Amsterdam, Shannon and Fort Lauderdale. This figure should be 250 aircraft and we are happy to set the record straight.
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
