Domestic airlines shun Nigerian pilots —Investigation
MAY 27, 2013
:
Even in the face of financial difficulties, domestic airlines are paying expensively to hire foreign pilots, shutting the door against local pilots, OYETUNJI ABIOYEreports
Although the cost of keeping a local pilot is cheaper than foreign pilot, cash-strapped domestic airlines have turned their back on Nigerian pilots. Investigation by our correspondent has shown that many go for foreign pilots.
The development, according to some top industry players, has led to an unprecedented rise in the number of unemployed Nigerian pilots.
Industry stakeholders are worried that foreign pilots, often regarded as expatriates, are frequently being engaged by regular and charter airlines as well as billionaire jet-owners.
Investigation by our correspondent also revealed that some commercial airlines were ready to employ only experienced Nigerian pilots who had acquired enough flight-hours to sit on the left side of the cockpit usually reserved for the flight captain.
Sources familiar with the situation also said the airlines (regular and charter operators) employ experienced Nigerian pilots as co-pilots.
It was also learnt that domestic airlines were not ready to employ Nigerian pilots because they would need to spend a lot of money to train them to acquire additional flight-hours before they could assume the command of any aircraft.
According to industry experts, graduate pilots from Nigeria and overseas flying schools finish with between 250 and 500 flight-hours. But airlines only employ pilots that have between 1,000 and 1,500 flight-hours.
Hundreds of graduate pilots who finished from flying schools in Nigeria, South Africa, the United States and Europe, among others, have thus been rejected by Nigerian airline operators, several industry sources have said.
According to some local aviation experts, the development shows that the future is bleak for Nigeria’s aviation sector, which has over the years been battling with shortage of aviation manpower, especially pilots.
The experts said there were currently over 500 foreign pilots flying for regular, charter and private aircraft operators in the country.
The number of local pilots currently flying for commercial or private operators is said to be less than 200.
However, local industry players said over 400 Nigerian pilots, including fresh graduates, are currently unemployed in the country.
This includes over 100 graduates pilots from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology in Zaria. There are several other graduate pilots from South African, Europe and the US.
The Chief Executive Officer, Jed Air, a charter and cargo airline, Captain Nogie Meggison, expressed great displeasure over the development.
He said it was unfortunate that foreigners had taken over the pilot jobs from Nigerians.
The Jed Air boss said it was high time government addressed the situation, adding that the development was already assuming an alarming dimension.
He said, “Everywhere I go, I see people giving the CVs of Nigerian pilots. I asked myself, why do we have so many foreign pilots in the country and our own people are unemployed? I think something must be done.”
Meggison, however, said that the recently unveiled government policy on private jet would address the problem.
Some industry experts reasoned that the high number of foreign pilots in Nigeria was because majority of the aircraft in the country were foreign-registered and on wet-lease, meaning they could be flown by only foreign pilots.
Others explained that financially sick Nigerian airlines wanted ready-made pilots that they would not need to spend money to acquire additional flight hours before they could fly as captains or co-pilots.
But the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Captain Chinyere Kalu, said a new government policy on pilot employment would address the problem.
In the past, she said airlines used to employ pilots and train them.
She wondered why the practice was suddenly stopped among local operators.
Kalu said, “What the airlines are shying away from is training the pilots to get the type rating. If the pilots are going for type rating on Boeing 737, for example, it is going to cost the airline a reasonable amount of money.
“There is fear among the airlines that after training the students, they may leave. So, I suggest that there should be a policy that will say once an operator trains you, you have to work for that operator for a minimum number of years. I believe that will help.”
She also said, “These pilots have the basic training and basic qualification. The good thing is that with all these regional aircraft springing up in the industry, there is provision for a soft landing for the newly graduated students. They could work for them and build hours and maybe have a jet engine rating. This will be like a stepping stone for help them to go to the next level.
“But unfortunately, many of these regional jets are manned by foreigners. If there will be a policy put in place that will insist that our own local people should be the ones flying the aircraft, it will help. In the USA, that is what happens.”
No comments:
Post a Comment