Tanzania faces acute shortage of aviators

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania faces an acute shortage of pilots and stakeholders now want the government to come in and address the challenge.

As of November 2012 there were 183 local pilots against a demand of 456. According to Tanzania Air Operators’ Association (Taoa), the challenge can be addressed if the government realises that it has an obligation to bridge the gap.

“The local pilots we see around are mainly trained by parents and relatives of the individuals…..if we rely on such a system of funding, we will not bridge the gap since these professionals are in highly demand elsewhere…the Government must intervene,” the Taoa executive Secretary, Laurence Paul told BusinessWeek.

According to him, before 1977, the then East African Community, trained the region’s nationals in various aeronautical professions which included pilots, aircraft engineers, and air traffic controllers. “Training of the pilots was mostly done at Soroti Flying School in Uganda,” said Mr Paul.

However, after the collapse of the former EAC in 1977, each state was expected to start training its nationals. “To my surprise, some of the states, including Tanzania did not and this is what has brought us where we are today,” he said.

He said since local pilots are not enough to satisfy the demand, airlines pay expensively to get services of foreign ones.

“There is a big difference between costs of employing local pilots and their foreign counterparts…..no operators would go for foreign pilots if we had enough of such professionals locally,” he said.

One needs to look and pay for a work permit for a foreigner to worker in Tanzania. The respective Operator will need to pay for the annual-leave return air ticket, find and pay for the accommodation whilst in Tanzania and meet the cost of conversion of licences. “These are some of costs associated with employing foreign pilots but since we do not have enough of them locally, operators are obliged to go for them anyway,” he said.

Traditionally, according to Taoa, only about 10 per cent of pilots who apply for bush pilot jobs have all the attributes required.

“There are very few local pilots who meet the required qualifications. It is therefore crucial that the Professional Association of Tanzanian Pilots (PATP) should encourage its members to meet the minimum qualifications which will enable them to be employable both in and outside the country,” said Mr Paul.

Tanzanair Director of Operations Abdukadir Luta Mohamed told BusinessWee recently that Tanzania will have very few local pilots in the coming five years because most of the existing ones would have retired.

“Pilots trainings has decreased significantly and I don’t see any efforts to impart this knowledge to the young generation, if major steps are not taken, Tanzania will have to depend on foreign pilots,” said Mr Mohamed in an interview.