Lion and Wings need 120 pilots annually

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 05/28/2010 4:42 PM

Privately run airline companies, Lion Air and Wings Air, need 120 additional pilots annually, an executive of the companies said Friday.

Redi Irawan, operation director of Wing Air, said that the need would be adjusted to the airplane procurement plan by the two companies, which belonged to Rusdi Kirana, over the next several years.

The two companies have thus far employed 550 pilots, including 25 foreign pilots, he said.

Redi explained that in the period between November 2009 and April 2010 his company got delivery of five new airplanes out of the 30 ATR 72-500 airplanes his company ordered until 2013.

Wings, he said, operated 12 airplanes at the moment, consisting of five ATR 72-500, five MD-82 and two Dash 8, while Lion operated 50 airplanes, comprising 34 Boeing 737-900ER, nine 737-400, two 737-300, two 747 series 2, and three MD-90. Until 2015, Lion will add 178 other Boeing 737-900ER.

By the year 2014 Lion and Wings have targeted to own 1,000 pilots to operate all their airplanes.

“As a number of institutions in Indonesia have not been able meet demand of 400 to 500 pilots per annum, we run our own school to help meet pilot demand for Lion and Wings. The rest will be taken from graduates of Curug pilot training school,” Redi said as quoted by kompas.com news portal.