Pilots were never in such demand in China, or in such short supply, if that’s the way you want it.
Sichuan Airlines hired 12 pilots from Taiwan last month. It was the second batch from the island province.
The same airline recruited eight pilots on three- to six-year contracts two years ago, becoming the first mainland carrier to employ Taiwan pilots.
Taiwan's Zhang Luzhen made history by landing an Airbus 321 at Beijing's Capital International Airport in December 2005. He had flown from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.
Taiwan pilots are also flying to and from Nanjing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
All this has been made possible by the mainland's fast growing civil aviation sector.
The air transport industry has been growing at an annual rate of 16 percent, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, or CAAC. In 2006, the authorities estimated that the country would need 9,100 more pilots by 2010 to fly the new Boeing and Airbus planes being added to Chinese carriers' fleets, at the rate of 100 to 150 a year.
That is precisely the problem. Pilots can't be trained in high enough numbers to keep pace with demand. The gap between supply and demand of pilots is likely to be 2,000 by 2010.
China can now produce 1,400 new pilots a year, including the 400-odd that come out of China Civil Aviation Flight College.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
