Well...I have just received word that OK Airways has officially suspended the hiring of all foreign pilots until September 2006. My guess is that CAAC has put the pressure on the company by increasing the minimum requirements in the near future. This is just my guess....not sure what the official word is...but this is indeed bad news for all foreign pilots.

Now for those of you who are wondering what is going on with me? Well my "guess" is that I'm not going anywhere. The company has spent way too much money on lil' ol' me...so they will spend the money required to complete my last little bit of training that I need before CAAC can finally bite the tongue and let us fly. Our group just might be the first and the last to get hired as low-time foreign pilots. In the future, the standards will probably be raised dramatically.

But as the months ahead go by, I think we will start to notice CAAC tightening up the rules and regulations on the hiring of foreign pilots. It's not they are not willing to hire foreign pilots but more so to do with safety. CAAC and China cannot afford to have a major air disaster happening now or ever. China aviation is slowly coming out of its days known for many air disasters. But in the last decade, Chinese aviation companies and the government have bought new planes, signed more contracts for more new planes, become more aware of safety issues, and increased training for maintenance staff, dispatchers, and all ground staff that assist with the operation of an airline. With the Olymipics 2008 right around the corner, the world is watching China and the country knows it.

So how does a country satisfy the major pilot shortage that is already occurring. How is China going to fulfil the "minimum" requirements of approximately 1000 pilots per year and bringing in 150 airplanes per year for the next decade?

In December 2004 the CAAC’s flight standards department disclosed that the country needed to recruit 12,000 pilots from then to 2010, but pointed out that China’s two certified pilot training schools could train only 850-900 pilots a year, with the CAAC Flying College in Sichuan accounting for 600-700 and the China Southern West Australian Flying College near Perth in Australia training 150-200. The school in Sichuan, for example, has raised its intake to 1,200 this year. But it will take years before China sees the end product of these student pilots.

But the pilots most in demand are likely to be captains with international experience because many of the local captains have never flown an aircraft beyond the Chinese border and newly trained pilots will need time to gain experience.

Anyways...these are just some of my thoughts...we should see some interesting things happening in the aviation industry in China this year. The following are just some neat numbers that I found on China's aviation industry...

Since 2000, passenger numbers have risen by 105% to 138 million a year and the combined fleet of the country's air companies rose to 863 planes from 527.

Every day, there are more than 11,000 take-offs and landings in China

Beijing is building the world's biggest airport terminal, which is due to be completed in time for the 2008 Olympics

In terms of aircraft, Boeing forecasts that from 2004-24 China’s commercial fleet, excluding Taiwan, will rise by about 2,500 aircraft, from 891 to 3,239.