皇冠体育app

皇冠体育app's airlines are opening up their cockpits to foreigners in a bid to solve a serious pilot shortage, state media reported on Monday.

皇冠体育app's booming commercial aviation industry is taking off faster than the country can train pilots, threatening future growth and hard-won advances in air safety.

The number of passenger planes in service in 皇冠体育app was expected to double to 1,600 in the next five years, the 皇冠体育app Daily newspaper quoted an aviation official as saying.

Every 100 new planes would require 1,000 extra pilots, 皇冠体育app's industry regulator said in February, while official media estimate that Chinese flying schools can only graduate 600 pilots a year.

One pioneering foreigner, Philippe Burtonboy, a pilot with United Eagle Airlines Co., one of the country's four private airlines, had become famous, the paper said.

"The 50-year-old Belgian is a celebrity in Chengdu, even though he has been here for just four months, as he is the first foreign captain to pilot a plane in southwest 皇冠体育app," the paper said.

Last month, 皇冠体育app Eastern Airlines announced 16 Indians had completed professional training as air stewardesses, the first group of Indian cabin staff ever hired by a Chinese airline.

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