Chinese airlines need to hire almost 100 pilots a week for the next 20 years to meet skyrocketing travel demand. Facing a shortage of candidates at home, carriers are dangling lucrative pay packages at foreigners with cockpit experience.
Giacomo Palombo, a former United Airlines pilot, said he's being bombarded every week with offers to fly Airbus A320s in China. Regional carrier Qingdao Airlines promises as much as $318,000 a year. Sichuan Airlines, which flies to Canada and Australia, is pitching $302,000.
Air traffic over China is set to almost quadruple in the next two decades, making it the world's busiest market, according to Airbus Group SE. Startup carriers barely known abroad are paying about 50 percent more than what some senior captains earn at Delta Air Lines, and they're giving recruiters from the U.S. to New Zealand free rein to fill their captains' chairs.
With some offers reaching $26,000 a month in net pay, pilots from emerging markets including Brazil and Russia can quadruple their salaries in China, said Dave Ross, Las Vegas-based president of Wasinc International. Wasinc is recruiting for more than a dozen mainland carriers, including Chengdu Airlines, Qingdao Airlines and Ruili Airlines.
Chinese airlines need to hire almost 100 pilots a week for the next 20 years to meet skyrocketing travel demand. Facing a shortage of candidates at home, carriers are dangling lucrative pay packages at foreigners with cockpit experience.
Air traffic over China is set to almost quadruple in the next two decades, making it the world's busiest market, according to Airbus Group SE. Startup carriers barely known abroad are paying about 50 percent more than what some senior captains earn at Delta Air Lines, and they're giving recruiters from the U.S. to New Zealand free rein to fill their captains' chairs.
With some offers reaching $26,000 a month in net pay, pilots from emerging markets including Brazil and Russia can quadruple their salaries in China, said Dave Ross, Las Vegas-based president of Wasinc International. Wasinc is recruiting for more than a dozen mainland carriers, including Chengdu Airlines, Qingdao Airlines and Ruili Airlines.
