‘Today’s youth will shape the Asia Pacific aviation industry tomorrow’ – Baltic Aviation Academy from AATES 2013

Aviation training centre Baltic Aviation Academy (Vilnius, Lithuania) attended the 1st ASEAN Aviation Training & Education Summit 2013 (AATES 2013), hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia on the 22nd – 23rd of January. The main goal of the event, organized by JAA TO, ICAO, ECAC, the Indonesian Ministry of Transport Human Resources Development Agency and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, was solving the human resource shortage in the civil aviation industry in the Southeast Asian region.

The growing human resource shortage raises reasonable concerns in Indonesia. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Indonesia will require 4000 pilots, 7,500 aircraft technicians and 1000 air traffic controllers in 2011-2015.

‘Today’s youth will shape the Asia Pacific aviation industry tomorrow – that could conclude the main ideas at AATES 2013. It is important to raise the quality of the aviation training, systemize the procedures, share the best practice among the countries and highly motivate young people to seek career in promising aviation industry. The solutions for aviation training and education should be started today, to avoid constant hiring foreigners tomorrow’, comments Ricardas Ramoska, Ex¬ecutive Business Developer for Asia Pacific at Baltic Aviation Academy.

According to Boeing’s Current Market Outlook, published in 2012, the unprecedented 460,000 new pilots demand will occur during the years 2011 to 2030 globally, 40% of which will be needed in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the data provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), at the moment the Asia-Pacific region simply cannot keep up with the projections.

AATES 2013 was attended by the Minister of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia, the Secretary General of ICAO, the Director General of DGCA and other key shapers of aviation regulation sphere. According to the organizers, for the first time 3 of the most influential aviation organizations in the world (JAA TO, ECAC and ICAO) have supported the inaugural event in Indonesia.

‘Due to the caliber of the airline and regulatory representatives and problem-solving attitude to ensuring sufficient capacity of aviation professionals in the region, we rank the event next to Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium (APATS) to be attended for airline and training representatives in the Asia Pacific region’, said Egle Vaitkeviciute, CEO at Baltic Aviation Academy.