China turns to foreign pilots to ease shortage

BEIJING, June 26 (Reuters) China's airlines are opening up their cockpits to foreigners in a bid to solve a serious pilot shortage, state media reported today.

China's booming commercial aviation industry is taking off faster than the country can train pilots, threatening future growth and hard-won advances in air safety.

The number of passenger planes in service in China was expected to double to 1,600 in the next five years, the China Daily newspaper quoted an aviation official as saying.

Every 100 new planes would require 1,000 extra pilots, China's industry regulator said in February, while official media estimate that Chinese flying schools can only graduate 600 pilots a year.

One pioneering foreigner, Philippe Burtonboy, a pilot with United Eagle Airlines Co, one of the country's four private airlines, had become famous, the paper said.

''The 50-year-old Belgian is a celebrity in Chengdu, even though he has been here for just four months, as he is the first foreign captain to pilot a plane in southwest China,'' the paper said.

Last month, China Eastern Airlines announced 16 Indians had completed professional training as air stewardesses, the first group of Indian cabin staff ever hired by a Chinese airline.

Reuters SI GC1259