After being thrust into crisis by COVID-19, the aviation industry faces yet more trouble as the world emerges from the worst of the pandemic to find there is likely to be a shortage of pilots after thousands were laid off or decided to retire.
Government policies such as mandatory vaccinations for trainee pilots and travel curbs have also kept a new batch of potential aviators away, said Bhanu Choudhrie, chief executive officer of Alpha Aviation Group, which runs flying schools in the United Arab Emirates and the biggest in Southeast Asia’s training hub, the Philippines.
Alpha Aviation has trained more than 2,500 pilots for carriers including Philippine Airlines, AirAsia Group, Cebu Pacific Air Inc and Air Arabia.
Modern, longer-distance narrow-body aircraft such as Airbus SE’s A321 XLR jets — due to be delivered from 2023 — are to require more pilots than earlier models, compounding the shortage, Choudhrie said from London.
“Airlines are going to continue to buy, modernize their fleets, and as they do that, they are going to require pilots,” he said. “The market is getting interesting again, and we’re starting to see that upward trend, we’re starting to see airlines come to us and say: ‘Look this is my delivery schedule, can you have pilots ready for me in two years time?’”
Many airlines are aggressively trying to rehire pilots, as well as cabin crew and ground staff, but that has not been a simple process, and some jobs are left unfilled. Careers in the industry no longer look as secure as before.
It takes 18 to 24 months to train a pilot, Choudhrie said
This means carriers must work on getting them ready way ahead of the delivery of new aircraft, including narrow-body jets, such as the A321 XLR, which can fly longer.
Airlines typically order aircraft years in advance given the limited production capacity of plane manufacturers.
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people