Chinese airlines luring Korean pilots with promise of better wages

BEIJING, China – The airlines in China lure pilots with the promise of better wages, leading to the resignation of Korean airline pilots, the Yonhap reported on Monday.

BEIJING, China – The airlines in China lure pilots with the promise of better wages, leading to the resignation of Korean airline pilots, the Yonhap reported on Monday.

The data of South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport show that 42 pilots of Korean Air handed in their resignations from January to July 2015. Some in the industry said that most of these airline pilots intended to switch to the airlines in China.

According to the Yonhap, Boeing is expected to deliver about a quarter of the planes manufactured this year to China. Boeing might deliver more planes to China in the next few years, resulting in a potential shortage of airline pilots in China.

With quite a few budget airlines stepping into market in recent years, China witnesses an increasing demand for airline pilots. A Chinese airline company posted a recruitment announcement and promised that it will pay nearly 300 thousand dollars annually to each recruit, which is three times the average wage of the young Korean pilots.

The wages of the Korean airline pilots are below the international standard wages for the job. Moreover, foreign pilots will get more pay than the Korean pilots in the airlines in Korea.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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