CLARK FREEPORT – Pres. Aquino can mobilize pilots from the Philippine Air Force (PAF) to temporarily fly Airbus 320’s of the Philippine Air Lines.
However, military pilots will have to undergo specialized training and acquire licenses before they could do this.
“This possibility is all up to our commander- in- chief (Pres. Aquino),” PAF spokesperson Lt. Col. Miguel Ernesto Ocol said in an interview, even as the 26 PAL pilots, all assigned to airbus 320’s, never returned to work despite warnings from PAL management of legal actions for breach of contract.
Ocol stressed, however, that deploying PAF pilots to fly airbus 320’s “won’t be easy”, although the military has “a good pool of pilots”.
Apart from training first in flying airbus 320’s, they will also have to be given licenses to fly commercial aircraft.
The situation at PAL has affected tourism and snagged foreign and domestic air travel. The PAL employees’ union said the resignations were in reaction to a plan by the airline to lay off thousands of employees and outsource their positions.
Sources from the aviation industry told Punto Central Luzon that the PAL pilots started to consider jobs before they abandoned PAL.
“The initial offer was from Air Vietnam which offered $9,300 monthly salary, then came an offer from a Hong Kong airlines with $15,000 salary per month,” the source said.
Ocol said that while the PAF flying school graduates about 50 pilots every year, there is no fear of them being “pirated” by lucrative-paying commercial airlines because they sign an 8-year contract with the air force. He could not immediately say how much the government spends to train one pilot, but he recalled that at the time he finished his training in 1994, the cost was about P2 million each.
Meanwhile, Ben Hur Gomez, owner of Omni Corp. which is one of the country’s top aviation schools, urged the Aquino administration to take advantage of the rising demand in China and India for aviation schools to train pilots for their growing aviation industries.
He said the Philippines’ location is ideal for Chinese and Indian pilot students, but he cited to the need to ensure the quality of local aviation schools which are under the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
A study made by Alteon, the training arm of the commercial airliner Boeing Co., revealed that China will need 2,162 pilots yearly or 43,240 pilots by the year 2025, while India will need 12,000 pilots by 2025.
The Alteon study also revealed that Central and South America need 1,344 pilots per year and that South American alone would need 27,000 pilots by 2025.
It also revealed that Europe will need an average of 3,747 pilots yearly, while the US and Canada would need 128,000 pilots by 2025.
However, military pilots will have to undergo specialized training and acquire licenses before they could do this.
“This possibility is all up to our commander- in- chief (Pres. Aquino),” PAF spokesperson Lt. Col. Miguel Ernesto Ocol said in an interview, even as the 26 PAL pilots, all assigned to airbus 320’s, never returned to work despite warnings from PAL management of legal actions for breach of contract.
Ocol stressed, however, that deploying PAF pilots to fly airbus 320’s “won’t be easy”, although the military has “a good pool of pilots”.
Apart from training first in flying airbus 320’s, they will also have to be given licenses to fly commercial aircraft.
The situation at PAL has affected tourism and snagged foreign and domestic air travel. The PAL employees’ union said the resignations were in reaction to a plan by the airline to lay off thousands of employees and outsource their positions.
Sources from the aviation industry told Punto Central Luzon that the PAL pilots started to consider jobs before they abandoned PAL.
“The initial offer was from Air Vietnam which offered $9,300 monthly salary, then came an offer from a Hong Kong airlines with $15,000 salary per month,” the source said.
Ocol said that while the PAF flying school graduates about 50 pilots every year, there is no fear of them being “pirated” by lucrative-paying commercial airlines because they sign an 8-year contract with the air force. He could not immediately say how much the government spends to train one pilot, but he recalled that at the time he finished his training in 1994, the cost was about P2 million each.
Meanwhile, Ben Hur Gomez, owner of Omni Corp. which is one of the country’s top aviation schools, urged the Aquino administration to take advantage of the rising demand in China and India for aviation schools to train pilots for their growing aviation industries.
He said the Philippines’ location is ideal for Chinese and Indian pilot students, but he cited to the need to ensure the quality of local aviation schools which are under the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
A study made by Alteon, the training arm of the commercial airliner Boeing Co., revealed that China will need 2,162 pilots yearly or 43,240 pilots by the year 2025, while India will need 12,000 pilots by 2025.
The Alteon study also revealed that Central and South America need 1,344 pilots per year and that South American alone would need 27,000 pilots by 2025.
It also revealed that Europe will need an average of 3,747 pilots yearly, while the US and Canada would need 128,000 pilots by 2025.
