Airlines don't want Thai pilots

A Thai Airways International pilot controls a Boeing 787 Dreamline jet on Sept 19, 2017. (Post Today photo)
A Thai Airways International pilot controls a Boeing 787 Dreamline jet on Sept 19, 2017. (Post Today photo)

Thai pilots are failing to find work after graduation despite high global demand in the aviation industry, the Civil Aviation Training Centre president said on Monday.

International airline operators are competing to offer jobs to pilots, but “our pilots find no jobs”, according to Piya Atmungkun.

Between 600 and 700 newly graduated pilots are struggling to find work in cockpits, he said.

Aviation programmes and pilot training schools have mushroomed, but many fail to meet international standards, according to RAdm Piya.

New pilots are being churned out continually without information of how many of them are actually employable by airline companies. This has led to the oversupply of pilots who aren't up to scratch, he said.

“The picture of the Thai aviation industry is being distorted by the claim that we lack pilots,” RAdm Piya said. "It's true there is a scarcity of pilots, but that demand is for experienced, not new, pilots."

He believes a plan to establish a “city of aviation” in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) will only increase the supply of domestic aviation personnel.

“Even before the EEC officially opens, there is already a high number of aviation graduates,” RAdm Piya said. “But companies will not employ them if their qualifications are not certified according to international standards.”

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Vocabulary

  • aviation: the flying of aircraft - การบิน
  • certified: having a document confirming that someone or something meets a necessary standard - ที่มีการรับรอง
  • churn out (verb): to produce large amounts of something - ผลิตเป็นจำนวนมาก, ให้เป็นจำนวนมาก
  • cockpit: enclosed space for a pilot in an airplane - ที่นั่งคนขับ
  • distort: to change something such as information so that it is not longer true or accurate - บิดเบือน
  • mushroom: to increase or develop very quickly - กระจายอย่างรวดเร็ว
  • personnel: the people who are employed in a company, organization or one of the armed forces - บุคลากร, เจ้าหน้าที่, พนักงาน
  • pilot: a person who operates the controls of an aircraft, especially as a job - นักบิน
  • scarcity: when there is not enough of something and it is difficult to obtain it - ความขาดแคลน, ความไม่เพียงพอ
  • standards: a level of quality that is normal or acceptable for a particular person or in a particular situation - มาตรฐาน, บรรทัดฐาน
  • struggle (verb): to try hard to do something that you find very difficult - พยายาม; ต่อสู้
  • up to scratch: good enough -

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