Malaysian pilots - there's always a place to fly

About a month ago the news report at CBC News said the aviation industry may face a shortage of pilots.

Looming pilot shortage feared

The U.S. maker of commercial jetliners, Boeing projected that there will be an estimated 30,000 more planes in the sky worldwide and that 466,650 pilots will be needed to fly them.

The shortage is already happening in some countries and there are dozens of pilot positions advertised in Asia, including China, Korea and Vietnam, and in the Middle East.

In Canada and the United States alone, where baby boomer pilots are ready to retire — 97,350 new pilots will be required to replace these veteran pilots.

Continue reading here

In Malaysia on the other hand, graduate pilots or future pilots are said to be 'Flying Nowhere', as the frontpage headlines of the printed version of theStar today screamed.

The printed version of the paper had also exclusively made a full-page report (page N10) on the matter.

The online news however carried a different headline although singing the same tune:

Graduate pilots hit hard by job shortage

Nonetheless, both the online and the printed version carried another related story with a catchy headline: Flying dreams a pie in the sky, which also bore a subheading: 500 still unable to take off after graduation.

The news report said that most of these pilots, who graduated from the eight flying schools in the country, have been without a job for between one and two years.

So, what's the catch?  

Roei Ganzarski

In Canada, they say there's not enough pilots worldwide, and here there's not enough jobs!

Roei Ganzarski (pic above), the US chief customer officer for Boeing Training and Flight Services said, "What we don't want is for organizations to feel the need to fill that demand — to fill that shortage — by putting in maybe less competent, less proficient pilots,"

Datuk Tony Fernandes exchanging documents with Jeff Roberts

Jeff Roberts (pic above), group president of civil simulation products, training and services at CAE Inc. said, "It has been difficult to recruit young people to become pilots. It takes up to five years to acquire the skills to fly commercially and many years after that before pilots can fly in the big leagues."

Malaysia Airlines operations director, Capt Azharuddin Osman (pic left) said, “There must be controls and proper tests in place to ensure those taking pilot courses meet the stringent standards required by airlines. With the right qualifications, their chances of being employed by an airline would be better,”

“On average, MAS recruited 100 cadets into its full scholarship cadet programme every year. For every 16 that apply, only one gets in. Pilots had to clock in at least 4,000 hours to captain a narrow body aircraft like a Boeing 737, which could take between eight to 10 years before progressing to a widebody aircraft,” he said.

Malaysian Flying Academy Sdn Bhd’s Lt Col (Rtd) Frank Chong Keng Lay acknowledged there was an oversupply of fresh graduate pilots, but said the situation would improve. “Demand for pilots come in a cycle. For example, there was a shortage in 1995 as the enrolment was low. Recently, the intake is higher but the demand from airlines has not been growing at the same pace.”

Many of the graduated pilots agreed that: Sometimes, it’s a long wait in the wings

Mohd Zakaria, a recent graduate said his batch of 24 students enrolled in 2008 but only one got a job. He said finding a job also has to do with the timing of the intake. “If you graduate and just missed the job intake, you would probably have to wait a year or so before the next window opens.”

Continue reading the plight of these jobless pilot graduates here.

My take: The problem I see here has nothing to do with whether there's no job opening as a pilot, or if there's a long wait to get a job, or there's too many graduates in the same field. It has to do with the quantity of the those who qualified as a trainee and the quality of those who graduated, or both.

What do you expect when there are eight flying schools churning out between 300-400 (sometimes more) pilots a year, but all the country needs is just about 200 pilots annually?

If the quality of those 500 graduate pilots are not questionable, then for heaven's sake go find a job elsewhere. Or go get a better qualification by attending a bigger and better training school.

If you really know how to fly, spread your wings. Go find jobs at all four corners of the world -- the probability can be endless, and as the saying goes, the sky is the limit.

Related story:

How to Become a Pilot?

Reaching For The Skies

How to be a Pilot in Malaysia?

How Much Salary a MAS Pilot Can Earn?

Out to even the score