Foreign Airline Pilot Training vs. U.S. Training

Bruce Wayne

Bruce Wayne

Member
I have been trying to look into this question, but haven't been having any luck. I am mostly just curious about it. Why do most foreign airlines pay for their pilots flight training and in the U.S. there really is no such thing? (I am not talking about initial training after getting hired by an airline, I am referring to the fact that foreign airlines send their pilots to flight schools in the U.S. for free.) Thanks for the input!
 
There is very little general aviation infrastructure in most other parts of the world.

Hard (and expensive) to do flight training when light GA aircraft are few and far between and user fees add up in a hurry.
 
BobDDuck said:
There is very little general aviation infrastructure in most other parts of the world.

Hard (and expensive) to do flight training when light GA aircraft are few and far between and user fees add up in a hurry.
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Okay, but how can foreign airlines afford to pay for their pilots training?
 
In some cases, the student is paying, it's just that they are "guaranteed" a job.

For those not paying, as mentioned in the previous post, it's a loan/training bond, for up to 20 years.
 
Also, if they don't train their own pilots, given the lack of GA infrastructure as mentioned by other posters here, then they really have no local pilots to hire at all. As many countries have laws in place that they must hire locals to some extend, they are forced to have to train them themselves.
 
Cost of training is cheaper in the US that anywhere else in the world (most likely)

Depending on the airline some students sign lifelong contracts to work for the airlines, others have a long term training bond, some pay for it themselves and are guaranteed a job when they return Other parts of the world (Asia in particular) has a huge pilot shortage and cannot train pilots fast enough. Recruits their students from universities and trains them here before going back and flying an Airbus or Boeing product.

It also comes down to supply and demand, Once the supply dwindles down in the US I wouldn't be surprised to see US airlines do their own training programs. But that might be 15-20+ years down the road.
 
This another reason why I think that we are very lucky here in the United States to have such an established aviation industry, that ranges from GA to corporate, to military,to all kinds of airlines. While the industry is not perfect, it does provide opportunities for a relatively large number of us to make a living in this industry, which would be pretty much nonexistent in many countries. Despite it's dark spots, the aviation industry here is still the envy of the world, I think. Now if we can just not kill it!
 
A lot of these airlines are also state-sponsored airlines, and will never go out of business since they're back by they're respective govt.
 
One really nice thing about how the US does it is you don't have to go thru hoops just to get training and a job. Just about anyone, with a mechanical aptitude and slight hand-eye coordination talents, can become a pilot and get a job as one, eventually after a couple years making a living at it. Contrast that with the way it's done overseas, basically hand picked candidates (the best and brightest, in a way) jobs are extremely competitive and most don't have a shot.

In a way, it kinda sums up the American Dream.
 
Given the current concerns and recent accidents, I thinks we are dong it better. How long are these ab initio students spending in a piston single doing power on/off stall recoveries and tooling around the practice area with the stall horn blasting learning about angle of attack?
 
oh yeah, and how long are these ab initio guys/gals teaching blasting around the practice area with stall horn learning about angle of attack?
 
bc2209 said:
Some of the Chinese guys here have a contract for 90 years with their airline. How bout that stuff.
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Many of those contracts are not just for being pilots. If they wash out of training or reach pilot retirement age and can't pay the bond off, they could be driving the lav trucks until they're 110...
 
BobDDuck said:
Well... yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transportation_Stabilization_Board
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They picked some real winners there, didn't they?

Even airlines with State guarantees aren't exempt from similar nonsense like we have here, but I don't think the government's help really helped post-9/11. The establishment of TSA certainly didn't...

touch-n-go said:
This another reason why I think that we are very lucky here in the United States to have such an established aviation industry, that ranges from GA to corporate, to military,to all kinds of airlines. While the industry is not perfect, it does provide opportunities for a relatively large number of us to make a living in this industry, which would be pretty much nonexistent in many countries. Despite it's dark spots, the aviation industry here is still the envy of the world, I think. Now if we can just not kill it!
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I'm going to make a somewhat bold statement here: the exploding costs of GA, and the declining median income in the U.S., has already at least substantially damaged the general aviation business. It's a nasty combination of having new airplanes being tremendously expensive and nobody being able to afford them. :(
 
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