Voldsom økning i behovet for flygere i Asia

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Rapid Industry Growth Brings Western Pilots to Asia

French Co-Pilot Among Thousands Drawn to Asia's Booming Commercial Aviation Industry

The proliferation of budget carriers, especially in Southeast Asia, has underpinned the growth of commercial aviation in the region. Above, an Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320-200 passenger jet.

The French co-pilot of AirAsia Flight 8501 was among thousands of foreign commercial pilots hired by Asian airlines in recent years amid frenetic growth in the region's air-travel market, now the world's largest.

The Airbus A320 was under the command of Indonesian Capt. Iriyanto, assisted by Rémi- Emmanuel Plesel, a 45-year-old French national.

Search crews have yet to find any signs of Indonesian jet, which disappeared Sunday on a short flight to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city.

The supply of locally trained cockpit crews across Asia has fallen far short of the growth pace of fleets, which now stand at over 7,000 planes regionwide. The commercial airline industry's rapid expansion over the past decade has forced companies to hire foreign pilots-many from Western countries, where demand has plateaued-to fill the gap.

Airlines in Asia account for half of the 330-odd pilot recruitment postings on the careers website of Flightglobal, an industry publication. Demand is strong for positions of captain, as pilots need several years to accumulate experience needed for promotion.

"You can't train them so you have to buy them," said Mark Martin, chief executive at Martin Consulting LLC, an aviation consultancy, noting that the shortage isn't on a lack of pilots per se, but for those with experience. "We need senior pilots to impart their knowledge on younger pilots."

Asian carriers offer pay packages that are often superior to those in the West. Pilots are also given flexible work rosters, allowing them to take a few months off at a time.

Mr. Plesel, the French co-pilot on Flight 8501, left a "very successful career" as an engineer at Total SA in Paris to fulfill a childhood dream of being a pilot, said Lucien Plaisance, a pilot and friend of Mr. Plesel. After flight school in France, Mr. Plesel took a three-year contract in Jakarta with AirAsia.

Mr. Plesel had one goal in mind: "To fly as much as he could, to get the most hours he could, so he could eventually qualify for a job with a major European airline that required more experience," Mr. Plaisance said.

Underpinning the industry's rapid expansion in Asia is the proliferation of budget carriers, especially in Southeast Asia, which is home to a large number of first-time fliers. Fares often run as low as $30 for the 90-minute one-way flight between the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and Surabaya.

Hundreds of population centers across Southeast Asia's archipelago are now connected by airline travel, forming the backbone of the region's mass transportation infrastructure. As a result, Asia's low-cost carriers now account for over 25% of the continent's total passenger traffic, compared with just 9% in 2006.

Indonesia's Lion Air has grown into Asia's biggest budget carrier by fleet size, through shuttling passengers across the nation's many islands. It now serves over 30 domestic destinations, plus a handful of international routes, providing multiple daily connections between cities like Ambon and Fak Fak, mostly unfamiliar names to foreigners.

Meanwhile, rapid air travel growth in countries like China and India amid rising incomes is also fueling the industry's expansion in Asia, helping Asia-Pacific become the world's biggest air-travel market in 2011, with a 30% share of all global passengers.

The region's share rose further to 31% for 2014, based on preliminary figures from the International Civil Aviation Organization. By contrast, North America's share of global traffic fell to 25% from 29% in 2011.

The rapid pace of capacity growth in Asia is likely to continue. AirAsia and its main regional rival Lion Air together have another 1,000 planes on order, more than a third of which will be used to develop new routes-and that is on top of the hundreds of planes ordered by Chinese and Indian carriers.

Such growth in fleet size would ensure continued demand for foreign pilots, even as airlines are ramping up their training capabilities.

"Every week you hear [an airline[ announcing a new simulator or buying up a training school...but they can never really have enough pilots because you have so many aircraft coming in," said Greg Waldron, Flightglobal's Asia managing editor.

An airline needs to have four to five separate crews for each new single-aisle jetliner, "so you need a much larger number of trained pilots," he said.

However, intensifying competition among low-cost and legacy carriers in the region are hurting profit margins, and may help slow the breakneck pace of expansion in the near term, say analysts.

AirAsia is among a few Asian airlines that stayed profitable in 2014 despite the more crowded skies, but it has been forced to ease the pace of its growth by cutting back on aircraft deliveries