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Aiming to avoid lost opportunities and ensure flight safety,
the country's major airlines are taking steps to cope with the pilot
shortage by investing in pilot training.
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, which often sees its pilots
lured away by foreign airlines, is planning to establish an aviation
school, which is expected to open its doors next year, a Garuda
official says.
"We now have about 530 pilots. Most of them are highly experienced. The
strong overseas demand for our pilots is partly because they are top
quality," Garuda spokesperson Pudjo Broto told The Jakarta Post earlier
this week.
Despite the strong demand, Pudjo said that Garuda was not suffering
from a pilot shortage. However he acknowledged that the industry was
facing a problem resulting from the increasing number of flights, with
air traffic currently growing by 20 percent a year.
The country's only aviation school, the Indonesian Aviation Institute
(STPI), can produce 45 pilots per year, which is much less than the
current demand for its graduates. The Transportation Ministry reported
that as of the end of June alone, demand for pilots, including from
abroad, had reached 535.
"Right now, we are still awaiting a license to establish the Garuda
aviation school, which we expect to be up and running early next year,"
Pudjo said.
According to Pudjo, next year Garuda plans to buy 25 Boeing 737 NG
aircraft and hopes to have 10 Boeing Dreamliners in operation by 2011.
Mandala Airlines president director Diono Nurjadin said that pilot
shortages had given rise to new opportunities for investment in pilot
education.
"There are opportunities for investing in pilot training as the demand
is growing rapidly. Surely there are plenty of investors who will be
interested," he said.
In dealing with the pilot shortage, Diono said that his company planned
to launch a bursary program to enable would-be pilots to train in
aviation schools abroad, such as in the Philippines, Malaysia and China.
"Of course, the bursaries will be based on a contract so that the
recipients will work for our company after they graduate," he said.
Mandala recently bought 25 Airbus A320 aircraft, with each plane
purchase coming with a training package for their pilots, Diono
explained.
"We also plan to buy an A320 flight simulator for our training center,"
he said.
Adam Air is also moving to invest in a training center.
"We will open our own training center next year, where we plan to
provide four flight simulators. We will install a Boeing 737-400
simulator, and we may also consider an Airbus A320 simulator," Adam Air
president director Adam Suherman told the Post.
Adam refused to disclose the total amount of investment involved, but
said that one simulator would cost between US$10 million and $15
million.
"Our main focus at the training center will be our own pilots, but we
may also open it to other airlines," he said.
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