Wanted: foreign pilots in China
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-28 14:40
China's airlines are opening up their cockpits to foreigners in a bid to
solve a serious pilot shortage, state media reported on Monday.
China's
booming commercial aviation industry is taking off faster than the country can
train pilots, threatening future growth and hard-won advances in air safety.
The number of passenger planes in service in China was expected to double to
1,600 in the next five years, the China Daily newspaper quoted an aviation
official as saying.
Every 100 new planes would require 1,000 extra pilots, China's industry
regulator said in February, while official media estimate that Chinese flying
schools can only graduate 600 pilots a year.
One pioneering foreigner, Philippe Burtonboy, a pilot with United Eagle
Airlines Co., one of the country's four private airlines, had become famous, the
paper said.
"The 50-year-old Belgian is a celebrity in Chengdu, even though he has been
here for just four months, as he is the first foreign captain to pilot a plane
in southwest China," the paper said.
Last month, China Eastern Airlines announced 16 Indians had completed
professional training as air stewardesses, the first group of Indian cabin staff
ever hired by a Chinese airline.
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