From aviation to nursing

The previous column piece ``Mayday! Mayday! for the aviation industry’’ tried to bring to the fore the brain drain problem in the aviation industry which is becoming more acute because of foreign recruiters’ poaching expedition in the country. It is so easy for the foreign poachers to entice our highly trained aviation experts with high pay because the foreign aviation industry did not have to invest in long and expensive training.

That is what the locals are complaining about. It takes 10 years and more than P10 million in training investment to produce an airline captain. Aviation engineers aren’t simply plucked out of an aviation school, their skills are honed over the years. Now they are being snapped up faster than the local industry could produce their replacement.

I had spoken with very worried industry players who wanted to see some kind of moratorium on recruitment. But who can legislate against a person’s right to seek higher pay? Doctors-turned-nurses as well as educators might soon become a vanishing breed as they go away in droves. And now aviation experts who are sorely needed locally are flying away to seek bluer skies. Some are even shifting to nursing.

Here are some letters from those who know first-hand what’s ailing the aviation industry. They give us another view of what’s on the ground and in the sky.


From Luchi Lopez: ``PAL pilots, including cabin crew are not happy with their jobs that is why they are leaving. It is as simple as that. Since Lucio Tan took over, the pilots have been demoralized, degraded, most especially after losing their union, and treated like jeepney drivers. Mind you, that is exactly what Mr. Tan said some time ago, `Bakit laki sueldo driver lang naman’ (Why big pay when they’re just drivers).

(Jeez, he said that?)

``Domestic cabin crew are transferring not only because of the big pay difference but also because PAL now retires even the newly hired who turn 35 years old (just when you are starting your life). As of now, around 120 cabin crew in PAL’s international and domestic flights are taking up nursing on their free time just so they can have a better future…

``It’s getting harder to recruit cabin crew (for the country’s airlines) because other airlines can pay as much as $3,000 a month as compared to PAL’s basic salary of P10,000 in domestic flights.’’

From Victor Edgar M Carrillo III, president and CEO of Asian Aeronautics Services, an aircraft maintenance and repair facility and service provider based in Manila and Clark in Pampanga: ``We are not spared from this brain drain…We spent so much time, money and effort to train our mechanics and technicians only to suffer their loss to overseas work. Should this exodus continue unabated, I can only paint a bleak picture of our aviation industry in the next few years. The industry is virtually going into a nosedive and may soon crash if not given support by our government.

``While your article focused more on our local airlines and service providers, we who compose the general aviation sector of the aviation industry share the same sentiments…General Aviation (GenAv) is largely concentrated at the Manila Domestic Airport and international airports in the country. GenAv includes corporate aircraft owners and operators, air taxi and charter companies, aircraft dealers and distributors, maintenance and repair facilities, aeronautical and flying schools, avionics shops, freight forwarding companies who own and operate cargo aircraft and small air cargo operators who daily fly farm-to-market produce.

``All of the above players in GenAv are in so many ways vital contributors to the economic growth of our country. We are a nation of 7,100 islands and our mission is to provide fast and safe transportation of people, tourists and cargo…And we who are directly involved in aircraft maintenance and repair have to ensure and keep our planes flying safely at all times.

``Just imagine the time when none of our highly skilled airmen are nowhere available. The economy would further suffer and decline drastically. We were numero uno in Asia and the Pacific way back in the 70s and 80…Many foreign airlines sent their pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers to train in the Philippines…’’

But the letter from Eunice Lacson paints a different picture of the ``flight’’ of aviation personnel to distance skies. ``I am a graduate of PATTS College of Aeronautics and have been working for nearly four years. My fiance, who also graduated from PATTS, finished BS in Avionics Technology. Thank goodness he was off recently to Singapore to work as aircraft technician/technical planner for Singapore Airlines Engineering Co. Sad to say, a lot from my batch have no work yet until this time. I could feel their frustration and agony. The airlines here won’t hire them because they lack experience, they’re new graduates, etc.

``Every year, hundreds—from airline mechanics engineers to airline personnel—graduate from PATTS. They are very eager to get a job in our domestic airlines but they are rejected again and again. I know that because my fiance and I had once been through that. I know someone who finished an engineering course in my school and who had a hard time landing a job so he just took up another course. And you can guess—it’s nursing. He told me that he might get lucky this time.

(Flying nurses, anyone?)

``So airline executives here really can’t blame these individuals if their talents are leaving…There’s a new trend now. International airlines are very willing to train people because this would be a good investment for them. I am writing so that the airline executives may know…’’
Again, Mayday!Mayday!