Civil aviation training centre to be established in Kazakhstan

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM Today, at the Governmental sitting, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Beibut Atamkulov announced the pilot shortage elimination plan, Kazinform correspondent reports.

According to Beibut Atamkulov, training of highly-qualified personnel for civil aviation is an important task for his Ministry. The only Civil Aviation Academy of the country trains more than 400 specialists per year. The graduates have to undergo summer practice abroad.

In his words, the graduates of the Academy do not conform to modern standards, and airline companies prefer to employ foreign pilots and foreign administrative personnel.

«In order to train highly qualified pilots, the Ministry is now working on the plan of development of the Civil Aviation Academy. In 2020, we plan to consolidate all the existing educational institutions in the sector and create a new civil aviation training centre which will comply with the European standards,» Atamkulov explained.

According to the Ministry, 100 out of 450 pilots of Air Astana are foreigners. 30 foreign nationals are employed as administrative personnel. In average, foreign pilots are paid EUR9,000 per annum that is 15% higher than the salaries of Kazakhstani specialists.