Local pilots willing to stay in RP given the right pay

The Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (ALPAP) has expressed its willingness to convince local commercial pilots not to transfer to foreign airlines if domestic airline companies agree to pay $4,000 to $6,000 to local pilots which the carriers claim they are already paying.

In an earlier interview, former Philippine Airlines president Avelino Zapanta said 747 pilots are being paid $6,000 a month while those flying 737s are receiving $4,000 per month.

ALPAP president Capt. Elmer Peña told The STAR that at present local pilots are receiving half of these amounts. "But if they are really willing to pay $4,000 to $6,000 a month, I will personally convince the pilots not to transfer to foreign airlines," he said. ALPAP has under its wing over 500 pilots belonging to different domestic airlines.

Jet Airways India, which according to sources needs around 700 new pilots over a two-year period, is willing to pay a B737 captain $8,700 a month net of tax, an A330/340 pilot $10,000 and a B777 captain $11,000, all net of tax, aside from other benefits like free accommodations, paid vacation leaves, to name a few.

The same Indian carrier is also offering maintenance engineers $4,000 plus housing while aircraft dispatchers are being offered $2,500 plus housing, as well as the required training and paid leaves. Local class A mechanics are receiving around $500 a month.

Another country that is actively recruiting Filipino commercial pilots is China which reportedly needs 10,000 new pilots over the next three to five years. India requires around 5,000 during the same period. Over the next 10 years, it is estimated that the requirement for pilots worldwide will reach 55,000.

The government is being urged to declare a five-year moratorium on the deployment of commercial pilots to foreign airlines to "stop the bleeding," even as they warned that the number of pilots in the country is dwindling to an alarming level.

Peña said a moratorium will not solve the problem as pilots who want to leave will find a way to leave the country. "If local airlines can afford to hire foreign pilots, then they can afford to give our pilots better pay," he pointed out.

But Peña warned that preventing pilots from leaving the country is unconstitutional as it would be violative of the right to labor, right to travel, right against involuntary servitude, among others.

He noted that the Malaysian courts have just recently ruled that Malaysian airline companies cannot prevent their pilots from leaving "if they cannot offer them better pay." Malaysia, like the Philippines, is among the worst hit in terms of pilot migration.

The ALPAP president called on all the major stakeholders, including government, to sit down and discuss the grant of incentives to aviation schools, even as he supported the call for income tax exemptions for domestic pilots.

The association expressed its concern over Memorandum Circular 01-06 issued by the Air Transportation Office (ATO) which requires pilots and mechanics, "in the interest of safety and security," to secure a clearance signed by their company prior to renewing their airman or maintenance technician license.

In a letter to ATO assistant secretary Nilo Jatico, Peña noted that the requirement is a great threat to the careers of airline personnel and stability of the aviation community both here and abroad. "Many countries permit Philippine pilots and mechanics to work in their country using their PI license. They must however maintain their license to remain employed by that country. Since foreign countries do not issue permission slips to ATO for their workers to renew their license, we must ask what is the intention of your office in regards to then Philippine aviation professionals working abroad," he said.

"Our employment was made possible by having earned our wings and issued our license, which is our personal responsibility to keep current for our continued employment. Now we are required to seek clearance from our employer and if no clearance is issued then our license cannot be renewed. What happens now to our employment? If this is not repression of the highest order, we do not know what it is," Peña said in another letter to Transportation Undersecretary Edward Pagunsan.