Prague, Oct 6 (CTK) – The Czech Republic may face a shortage of pilots soon because dozens of them tend to leave the Czech Republic, overpaid by rich Arab and east Asian air carriers, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes on Thursday.
Six years ago, the number of pilots in the Czech Republic was still excessive and the Czech Airlines (CSA) national air carrier was forced to make many of them redundant.
In recent months, however, Czech pilots have been massively switching to foreign carriers and there are no young pilots to fill the vacancies, HN writes.
Young people have been discouraged mainly by the high costs of the procedure of the pilot licence acquisition. The procedure, including a long instruction course and a training on a concrete type of aircraft, costs about two million crowns, which the applicants must pay from their own pocket, the daily writes.
Another factor to make pilots leave abroad is the extremely tough Czech legislation, it continues.
Czech law bans pilots from doing their job as private business with the status of the self-employed. They can only have employee contracts, the daily writes, adding that foreign air carriers offer their pilots to choose their work status.
“Czech firms cannot offer the same to them, which impairs their competitiveness,” Stanislav Fiala, head of the Czech Airline Pilots Association and an experienced pilot, is quoted as saying.
The association, supported by CSA and Travel Service, the biggest Czech air carrier, has proposed a draft amendment to the civilian aviation law in order to enable pilots to opt for the self-employed status, similar to that enjoyed by other professions such as defence lawyers or professional athletes, the daily writes.
The draft has been submitted to parliament on the association’s behalf by Vaclav Snopek, a deputy for the opposition Communist Party (KSCM).
The proposal has won Transport Minister Dan Tok’s (ANO) support, but it is still opposed by Labour and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksova (Social Democrats, CSSD), who insists on pilots’ obligatory status as regular employees.
Some critics also warn that the change, if passed, could be a precedent encouraging train and bus drivers to seek the same advantage. Pilots, nevertheless, say the latter professions are incomparable with theirs, since flying pilots cannot be checked in accordance with the Labour Code and their decision making during the flight must be independent, HN writes.
The association rejects the critics’ fears that if granted the self-employed status, pilots would follow railway workers’ example and take up one job after another without a relax pause, which could result in risky situations, the daily writes.
“The new bill’s goal is not to increase pilots’ incomes but remove the financial barrier for beginning pilots and make the profession accessible to a wider range of people in the Czech Republic. The self-employed regime is more advantageous for beginners,” the paper quotes CSA spokesman Daniel Sabik as saying.
In reaction to pilots’ departures, Czech air carriers have been filling the vacancies with foreign crews from countries such as Morocco or Mongolia.
The pilots say this poses a security risk. Regarding the safety of their countries’ inhabitants, German and French air carriers prefer hiring air crews of their own respective nationalities with a perfect command of the respective national languages, HN writes.
