Despite the acute drop in business facing the aviation industry worldwide since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the China Aviation Development Foundation (航發會) said yesterday that Taiwan's first comprehensive aviation training center remains scheduled to open next April.
The center's primary purpose is to produce more homegrown pilots.
The government's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) began programs to train Taiwanese pilots in cooperation with a ground-training center operated by National Taiwan University in 1995. But the sessions involving actual flights have always been provided abroad, in US, German and Australian aviation schools, according to Hsu Yung-hao (徐永浩), chief of the administration's Flight Standard Division.
This training, sponsored by the foundation and local airlines, ended this September.
The training center will provide complete flight training in Taiwan and will recruit new students every three months. The training course will last 18 months.
Conducting the whole of a pilot's training in Taiwan saves about NT$1 million of the cost of training a pilot, said Marshal Chen (陳炎慶), the foundation's CEO.
"We have contributed a large sum of money to the development of training centers abroad by sending students abroad," said Chen.
Chen said it is estimated that Taiwan needs to recruit on average about 165 pilots a year. If airlines plan gradually to replace all of their foreign pilots with Taiwanese, it is estimated that 200 new pilots will be needed each year.
He said that the center's establishment was aimed at fulfilling the increased need for pilots, especially given the possibility of direct air links between China and Taiwan.
In light of the global recession and the impact of terrorism on the aviation industry, however, the training center may have to accept a smaller than expected intake of students in its first year.
"We originally planned to provide about 100 Taiwanese pilots to local airlines per year, but the number is flexible," Chen said.
Taiwan began facing a shortage of pilots in the 1990s, following the initiation of an open skies policy in 1990 and an increase in air travel among Taiwan's increasingly affluent population, Hsu explained.
Hsu said that of 2,041 pilots employed by Taiwanese companies, there were 501 foreigners from over 40 countries, including the US, Australia, UK, South American and Southeast Asian countries. Most serve in China Airlines and EVA Airways, the two largest Taiwan-registered carriers.
Hsu said that the quality of foreign pilots cannot always be guaranteed. "The best ones are most likely to fly for their home country airlines."
Chen added that multi-national flight crews face a heightened risk of communication problems due to cultural gaps.
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