A few weeks ago we reported on an upcoming job fair being put together by Wasinc International, China’s largest pilot placement firm, and hosted by Pan Am International Flight Academy at its training centers in Miami and Las Vegas. What was unusual about the event was the airlines being represented. There were 12 Chinese carriers in attendance, all of them desperate to fill pilot seats in the fastest growing economy in the world. How did it go? The job fairs were held this past weekend, and the airlines there hired nearly 100 U.S. pilots on the spot.
I took a closer interest in the event because I was just down at Pan Am getting my commercial multi rating and plan to go back for a type rating. Greg Darrow, Pan Am’s head of sales and an airline captain himself, said the job fairs were the first of their kind and reflected the explosive growth of aviation in China. “For a guy with no wife and kids, going to China to fly would be an adventure of a lifetime,” Darrow said. “It’s really an amazing place.”
