CHINESE airlines are rushing to recruit qualified European pilots to counter a potential shortfall of 8,000 pilots over the next ten years.

The challenge to European airlines is also coming from India as it scrambles to lure captains from the West.

China’s booming commercial aviation industry is taking off more rapidly than the country can train pilots, and so airlines are being allowed to recruit foreigners for the first time. At least 100 European pilots have been hired by Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Okay Airways, China’s first private operator, this year. More are expected.

Air travel in China has grown rapidly in the past ten years and the expansion is set to soar. Forecasters expect China, in the next two decades, to become the world’s second-largest aviation market after the US. Last year China’s major airlines carried 120 million passengers, a 38 per cent rise on 2003. About 145 new aircraft will be delivered this year and China confirmed a $6 billion (£3.3 billion) contract for 50 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners in June at the Paris air show.

Boeing estimates that China will need more than 2,400 new passenger and freight aircraft costing almost $200 billion over the next two decades.

It will need 55,000 pilots to fly them in the next 20 years and is investing heavily in training schools. However, qualified captains are needed in the short term. Many Europeans have considered working in China, but are put off by the poor pay and conditions.

China pays pilots $2,466 to $6,000 a month, against $8,000 in India and between $8,000 and $18,000 in the UK.

Frances Cooremans, managing director of Contractair, a UK-based supplier of flight crews that has sent captains to China, said: “The pilot shortage in China is drastic. However, there is a shortage of suitably qualified crews worldwide. To entice experienced crews they are going to have to compete with the booming Indian market, which is willing to offer good terms and conditions. Until China simplifies its entry requirements and looks to compete with financial packages on offer as in India, it will be hard to find crews willing to go.”

Bureaucracy hinders recruitment of foreign pilots, who still have to gain Chinese licences. There is also concern that accommodation and benefits, such as flights home, are not sufficient to lure Western pilots. Most of the foreigners flying in China have been recruited from South America and Eastern Europe.

India has also been forced to hire foreign pilots. Air India is understood to have grounded aircraft because of a shortage of pilots. Experts expect India to need up to 4,000 more pilots over the next five years and that training them will cost about $200 million.

Andrew Middleton, head of airline recruitment at Wynnwith Engineering, said: “Recruiting qualified captains is a problem for all major airlines at a time when soaring fuel prices are cutting into their profits.”

BEIJING REFORMS AIRLINE RULES

China will start to deregulate civil aviation on August 15, government sources indicate. Domestic private investors will be able to invest in six local airlines but not the three largest airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

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