Pilots earned their wings in Canada heading to India

A passion for flying is the only reason to consider a career as a pilot, says Dan Martens, a senior instructor for Pacific Flying Club based at Boundary Bay Airport.
The training is expensive — about $60,000 for a full-time program with a public post-secondary institution — and the salaries are surprisingly modest, starting at about $20,000 or less per year.
But if you love to fly pilots are in huge demand in Canada, as well as overseas.
The big airlines with their high salaries and the widest range of destinations poach replacements from regional carriers, who turn to flight schools to find experienced pilots.
In some cases, airlines have had to reduce the number of flying hours required by new pilots to keep their planes in the air.
At the same time, China and India are establishing regional routes to meet the demands of their economic growth. The two nations are sending pilots to Canada because of the country’s high standards of training and are enticing new Canadian pilots with the opportunity to acquire flying hours and experience much more quickly.
BCIT is one of the province’s public post-secondary institutions offering aviation training. Pilots can also train with private flight schools and work on their credentials at their own pace.
Transport Canada requires pilots to first acquire a private pilot licence, followed by a commercial pilot licence, Kennedy says.
“Once you have those two licences, technically you are able to be hired,” she says, “but you normally need more aviation training.”
Pilots can train to fly float planes, helicopters and twin-engine planes using instruments alone. They can also train as instructors.
To log enough flying time to meet hiring requirements for larger airlines, Kennedy says, pilots may work as flight instructors for a couple of years. They may then move to a regional carrier and work their way into the “left seat” — the captain’s position — before looking for work at the big companies.
Fred Gaspar, spokesman for the Ottawa-based Air Transport Association of Canada, says newly licensed commercial pilots are heading to India and China, where jobs are plentiful and paycheques are fatter, leaving Canada’s regional carriers with a smaller pool of potential recruits.
“In Asia, it’s quicker and easier to get your hours and climb the ladder because the growth is so explosive,” Gaspar says.
“And when you graduate with $100,000 in debt and still need 2,500 hours to apply to a major operation, you want to go where you can get your hours fastest and make the most money. You go to India.”
09/03/08 Wendy Mclellan/Vancouver Province, Canada