Training Needs for Asian Carriers Growing Exponentially
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Buoyed by burgeoning demand for air traffic in the region, Asian carriers will require unprecedented numbers of pilots, cabin crew and engineers by the end of the decade.
Speaking at the inaugural session of Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium (APATS) 2024 underway in Singapore, Captain Ashim Mittra, Senior Vice President Flight Operations, IndiGo, and Captain Adrian Amaladoss, Divisional Vice President, Flight Operations, Training & Standards, Singapore Airlines, shared an insight into their requirements for trained personnel to meet future growth plans.
IndiGo plans to double its fleet by the end of the decade and sharing the airline’s flight, cabin and maintenance crew induction forecast, Mittra said the carrier’s forecast for 2030 will see it employ 35,000 pilots, cabin crew and maintenance crew.
At present, IndiGo has 18,300 pilots, cabin crew and maintenance crew. On an average, the airline will grow its staff by an average of 20% till 2018, and then grow at 10% annually till 2030. The average age of IndiGo pilots is 37 years with 54% of them between the age of 31-40. Mittra said that the airline has approximately 800 woman pilots.
IndiGo presently has approximately 5,200 pilots (2,700 Captains and 2,500 First Officers). At any given point of time, IndiGo has over 700 pilots in training, with approximately 120 released for operations after completion of training. IndiGo now has service agreements with nine Flight Training Organisations for its Cadet Programme from whom it plans to intake the bulk of its future pilots.
Singapore Airlines’ Amaladoss said the region is growing at a very high rate with a three-fold increase in the industry requirement for pilots. With the region re-fleeting at a high rate with the induction of modern and more fuel-efficient aircraft, he said there is a three-fold increase in industry need for pilots. Commenting on the requirements of Singapore Airlines Group, he said at present it has approximately 2,600 pilots, 10,000 cabin crew and 2,500 engineers. This is expected to grow in future to over 3,000 pilots, approximately 12,000 cabin crew and more than 3,000 engineers.
[Editor’s note: India-based Atul Chandra recently provided a broader update, with an accompanying sidebar article, for CAT followers on IndiGo’s training enterprise - Raising The Bar and Training as An Enabler for IndiGo’s ATR Fleet.
