PAL forced to temper expansion plans on exodus of workers

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) was forced to temper its expansion plans on fears the growing exodus of its mission critical workers may cripple the airline’s operations, a PAL official said. "We can not expand if we do not have enough pilots [to fly our planes]," PAL vice-president for human resources Cesar B. Lamberte said in an interview. Although he could not provide specific details, Mr. Lamberte said the airline could not easily expand its fleet of Airbus planes because foreign competitors have been poaching PAL’s pilots. The Lucio Tan-controlled company now has 420 pilots composed of captains, first officers and second officers. Captains and experienced first officers are usually the foreign airliners’ main targets for piracy. A source said the country’s second largest airline company, Cebu Pacific Air, Inc., has been experiencing a similar problem as its complement of Airbus pilots gain more flying hours. "The looming crisis is now here... the collapse [of the local aviation industry] may come sooner than later if our mission critical workers continue to leave," Mr. Lamberte explained. Mission critical workers and professionals are those considered integral to an industry, are necessary for business during good and bad times, and whose absence or departure considerably affects an industry’s long-term sustainability. Mr. Lamberte said that given the pilots’ fixed hours of allowable flying time, and the fast pace at which they are being pirated, it is not impossible that some planes may be grounded, resulting in flight cancellations starting this year. Pilots are prohibited from flying more than 1,000 hours a year, more than 100 hours a week and more than 8 hours a day. "We are hopeful though that it will not happen this year," he said. The PAL official however admitted they already lost 15 pilots to offshore airlines only during the first few months of the year and may lose more as some foreign airlines are actively recruiting them. "Imagine we lost only about 29 pilots last year... now it is almost half [of those who resigned last year] and it is only the first quarter. If you project, that would be about 60 or so pilots," Mr. Lamberte said. An Indian airline for example went on a hiring binge last year, pirating about 200 Filipino pilots of its 600 total requirement. "That is only one airline, and we have only about 700 pilots in the country. What about the Middle East airlines, the Chinese airlines?" Mr. Lamberte asked. That is why the local aviation industry is seeking a three- to five-year moratorium in the deployment of mission critical workers to replenish its stock of highly-skilled workers, he said. "Although we are now building in the six-month prior notice in our contracts [with pilots] to allow us some time to prepare, it is not enough since we cannot train their replacements in six months," Mr. Lamberte said. An industry study noted that the training for captains, the highest ranked pilots, require up to 10 years while aircraft mechanics need between five to six years before they can acquire type rating authorizations. "We would rather cancel flights than fly planes with inexperienced pilots," Mr. Lamberte said. – RMB, BusinessWorld