CLARK, Pampanga—Foreign and local flight students are coming in droves while flight-training schools are sprouting everywhere just like nursing schools.

If the trend continues, the Philippines could become Asia’s flight-training capital in the next few years, an aviation-school operator said Sunday.

Capt. Ben Hur Gomez, president of Omni Aviation Corp., considered as the country’s premier aviation school, said foreign flight students are steadily streaming in even as the number of registered flight-training schools across the country have increased, Air Transportation Office records show.

“Right now, there are about 400 Indian flight students enrolled at different flight schools in the country today,” Gomez, a former Boeing 747 pilot, said.

“Many more of them are coming along with other nationalities from Asia and Europe, but our local aviation schools cannot accommodate all of them just yet,” he said.

“This only shows that our country is the preferred aviation-learning haven for many nationalities and we should grab the opportunity and maintain the educational quality as this can provide thousands of jobs for our countrymen,” added Gomez. “Our government should give its full support by protecting the interests of flying schools.”

A certain aviation firm in India alone is reportedly asking Omni Aviation to gradually accommodate a hundred flight students per year, but Gomez said his office had to beg off to just half the number so as to give room to other aspiring local pilots.

Aside from Air Taxi Tours to Mt. Pinatubo, Omni offers the most complete regimen in aviation courses, namely, Private Pilot Ground/Flight Course, Commercial Pilot Ground/Flight Course, Instrument Flying Ground/Flight Course and Flight Instructor’s Course.

Omni has recently acquired a twin-engine trainer plane and would soon be offering a multiengine course as well. It is also planning to add two more Cessna trainer planes to its fleet of eight in the next few months. Omni is opening a flight-training branch in Lingayen, Pangasinan, shortly Gomez said.

Rounding out the other flight schools in Luzon are Clark Aviation, which is using an Airbus 320 flight simulator; Fliteline Aviation Corp., and Yokota Aviation School also in Bulacan.

The Air Transportation Office (ATO) also reported that the Visayas has now six flight schools.

These are Adventure Flight Education and Sports Inc., Aviation Training One International Inc., Aviatours Fly’N, Cheynair Aviation Flying School, Flight Dynamics School of Aeronautics and Indiana Aerospace University. These are all located in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu.

Mindanao has only one at present in Sasa, Davao City—the Mindanao Aeroflight Training Center Inc.

The National Capital Region hosts the biggest number of flight schools at 17, which raises the number of this latest phenomenon in the aviation industry to 28, the ATO said.

These are Ace Pilots Aviation Academy, Aeroflite Aviation Corp. Flying School, Airlink International Aviation School, Airworks Aviation Co., Axle Air Aviation School, Delta Air Aviation School Inc., Flight and Simulator Training Inc., Flight School International Inc., Flying Medical Samaritans, Masters Flying School, National Aviation Specialist Academy Int’l, Orient Aviation Corp., Pacific Airways Multiversity Flying Center  Phil. State College of Aeronautics, Philippine Airlines Learning Center, Phil. National Police Air Group Training and World Aviation Flying School.     

Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, bases of three fast-growing airlines, namely, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, are fueling this growth. The said countries are also believed to be the primary destination of Filipino aviation contract workers, Gomez said.

There are currently 700 commercial pilots in the country, 450 of whom are with the country’s flag carrier, PAL. Some 75 PAL pilots have left for foreign employment since 2003. 

Based on the paper entitled “The Air Transport Industry,” China alone will need some 10,000 pilots in the next 20 years and India will need 4,000 in the next five years.

The paper says growth period until 2023 will require 23,000 pilots, of which 6,000 will be in the Asia-Pacific region. At present Singapore has a pending job order for 50 pilots at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

An Airbus Global Market Forecast  pointed out in its 2004 study that passenger traffic will grow by 5 percent per annum until 2023 and this will require additional 16,601 passenger aircraft.

For aircraft mechanics, Singapore needs 767 senior mechanics and additional 50 junior aircraft mechanics, while Hong Kong and Qatar are both open with no specific number of requirements. Saudi Arabia needs 73.

FROM now on, projects to be funded by Chinese official development assistance (ODA) will not move forward until all stakeholders have been consulted on them.

THE Philippines scored low and was ranked at 65th place in the first global Logistics Performance Index (LPI) released in a new study commissioned by the World Bank (WB).

THE so-called sunshine industry, according to one of its leaders, will continue to shine in the future.

TWENTY construction companies are bidding for the P6.27-billion railway project, the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) announced Monday.

EVEN AS the country keeps its doors open to the possible tapping of nuclear-energy sources and technical assistance offered by neighboring Asean countries on the development of nuclear energy in the Philippines, the government would still rather develop its renewable-energy sources before it taps the use of nuclear-energy sources, Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes said Monday.

CLARK, Pampanga—Foreign and local flight students are coming in droves while flight-training schools are sprouting everywhere just like nursing schools.