Air China jets off to Australian flight school in scramble for pilots as pent-up demand drives travel rebound
- The state-run carrier has pushed the Australian Airline Pilot Academy to interview more than 100 Chinese candidates in just four days in April
- Air China’s move underscores the pace of the post-pandemic passenger rebound – and the sheer number of flight crew needed to sustain it
Air China Ltd. has swamped an Australian flight school with a request for commercial pilots, a sudden demand that points to a looming rebound as the vast Chinese market resumes international travel.
Beijing-based Air China had stopped sending its trainees to the Australian Airline Pilot Academy campus in regional Victoria state after the pandemic halted overseas travel in early 2020. But talks resumed two months ago and the giant state-run carrier, almost out of nowhere, pushed the school to interview more than 100 candidates from China in just four days in April.
“It went from nothing to ‘when can we start?”’ said Chris Hine, executive chairman of the academy. “Logic tells me that we must only be at the start of it. Airlines are still rebuilding.”
The urgency of Air China’s personnel requirements underscores the pace of the post-pandemic passenger rebound – and the sheer number of flight crew needed to sustain it. The world will need more than 600,000 new pilots between 2022 and 2041, and the biggest requirement is in Asia, according to the latest forecast by planemaker Boeing Co.
The biggest potential crew demands for Chinese airlines may be on overseas services. In Northeast Asia, a region dominated by China, international flying is wallowing 42 per cent below pre-Covid levels, according to OAG. The region’s domestic air travel market is already larger than it was before the pandemic, the data shows.
