【英语中国】中国飞行员请愿 要求合理流动

Hundreds of pilots at China's state airlines have signed a petition urging the government to remove barriers that restrict them from being poached, as an acute shortage of experienced flight crews threatens to stunt growth in the nation's booming aviation sector.

The petition campaign, which was published in several Chinese newspapers and media sites over the weekend, is a rare display of public discontent among some of the highest-paid employees at state-owned enterprises. It also underscores some of the problems China faces as it transforms many of its service industries into commercially oriented structures.

Chinese carriers have been on a hiring spree for senior foreign pilots, offering annual salaries of up to $270,000, or roughly double the average wage of a U.S. airline captain, as a shortage of locally trained crews has failed to keep pace with demand.

Robust demand for air travel has helped propel China's rise as the world's second-largest airline market in terms of passenger traffic after the U.S. It now plans to expand the industry by promoting budget airlines, which have transformed travel in parts of the Asian-Pacific region.

Yet airlines in China are still catching up to hire and train enough captains-who serve as the pilot in command of each flight-to fly the hundreds of new commercial jetliners they have on order. Though the number of local commercial pilots has quadrupled since the start of the last decade to roughly 33,000, the bulk of new pilots haven't yet made it to captain.

The shortage of senior crews is more problematic at upstart carriers, which don't usually have an established pipeline of pilots. Many of these new airlines, such as Spring Airlines Co. and Juneyao Airlines, have sought to poach captains from state-run carriers by offering salaries of as much as 40% above the market rate.

But many of the pilots wanting to jump ship have found themselves in a state of employment limbo, citing the difficulties in negotiating a way out of their contracts with the state airlines, which in some cases have withheld their licenses for several years while suspending their flying duties and pay. More than 1,000 lawsuits linked to pilot resignations have been processed since 2005, according to China's state media.

The concern for state carriers is that the tens of thousands of dollars they have invested in each pilot for training would transfer to benefit their smaller competitors. China's civil-aviation regulator in 2005 enacted compensation rules that impede the mobility of pilots, while an absence of standardized procedures to deal with pilot resignations further complicates the process for pilots. China's aviation regulator didn't respond to several requests to comment.

'It took nearly three years of court battles and mediation to end my contract with Air China, 601111.SH -0.72% ' said Zhao Hong, a former captain at flag carrier Air China Ltd. who was one of the initiators of the petition campaign. Despite the settlement with the airline, Mr. Zhao said he still hasn't been able to join another carrier as his personnel records are held up by the airline because of disagreements over some pension payment issues.

Mr. Zhao urged the nation's civil-aviation regulator to set new and reasonable regulations on pilot mobility. The majority of the 430 airline pilots who have signed the petition so far hail from the nation's three main state airlines: Air China, China Southern Airlines Co. 600029.SH -1.41% and China Eastern Airlines Corp., which together account for around 80% of the nation's passenger traffic capacity.

Some pilots are also complaining of long and irregular working hours at the state airlines, contributing to a desire to move to other companies. Chen Likun, another former Air China captain who resigned in April last year, said he had many administrative duties and meetings he had to attend under the state-owned structure, and felt they were 'very time-consuming and annoying.'

Mr. Chen joins a group of more than a dozen former Air China pilots based in the eastern Zhejiang province in a lawsuit against the Beijing-based airline over their plans to work at another carrier. He said his annual salary rose to around 500,000 yuan, or nearly $82,000, when he was promoted to captain in 2011, but says his pay could go up 30%-40% if he joined a privately owned airline.

When questioned about the pilots' protests, Air China Executive Director Fan Cheng declined to comment on specific cases. 'We're always open and willing to listen to the views of our staff whenever they have complaints and suggestions,' he said.

China Southern Airlines declined to comment, while China Eastern couldn't be reached to comment.

中国国家航空公司已有数百名飞行员签署了请愿书，敦促政府消除限制他们被竞争对手挖走的障碍。有经验的飞行人员严重缺乏的状况可能阻碍中国繁荣航空业的发展壮大。

此次请愿是国有企业部分薪资最高的员工少有地公开表达不满之举。几家中文报纸和媒体网站上周末都报道了请愿行动。另外，此事还凸显出中国面临的一些问题。中国此时正将很多服务行业的运营方式转变为商业主导型。

中国航空公司一直在大力招聘资深外国飞行员，提供的年薪最高达到27万美元，约为美国航空公司机长平均年薪的两倍，这是因为中国国内培养的飞行员短缺，无法满足需求。

对航空旅行的强劲需求在一定程度上推动了中国航空市场的崛起，以客运量衡量，中国已成为仅次于美国的第二大航空市场。中国目前打算通过推动廉价航空公司的发展来扩大航空业。廉价航空公司已在部分亚太地区改变了人们的出行。

虽然中国航空公司仍在努力招聘和培训足够的机长（指挥每架航班的飞行员），以执飞已经订购的数百架新商用喷气飞机。中国现有本土商业飞行员约3.3万人，是本世纪初的四倍，但大多数新飞行员还没有资格成为机长。

缺少资深飞行员对那些“后起之秀”的航空公司来说更为麻烦，因为这些公司通常没有完备的飞行员输送管道。春秋航空有限公司(Spring Airlines Co.)和上海吉祥航空股份有限公司(Juneyao Airlines)等很多新航空公司一直在设法从国有航空公司那里“挖”机长，向他们提供的工资最多比市场价高出40%。

但很多想跳槽的飞行员发现自己陷入了就业困境，在通过谈判摆脱与国家航空公司签订的合同时遇到了种种困难。有些公司会连续几年扣留他们的飞行执照，同时暂停其飞行任务，且拒付工资。据中国国家媒体报道，2005年来该国已审理了千余起有关飞行员辞职的官司。

国有航空公司担心的是，他们在每个飞行员身上投入的数万美元培训费将令其他规模较小的竞争对手成为受益者。中国民航局2005年颁发了赔偿规定，这使得飞行人员流动受到抑制。与此同时，由于缺少处理飞行员辞职的标准程序，飞行员的辞职过程进一步复杂化。记者几次寻求民航局置评，但均未获回复。

载旗航空公司中国国际航空股份有限公司(Air China Ltd)的前机长赵洪说，在经历了近三年的官司和调解后，我与国航的合约才得以终止。他是此次请愿活动的发起人之一。赵洪说，尽管与国航达成和解，他仍无法加入另一家航空公司，因为由于社保缴纳问题上未达成一致，他的人事档案被国航扣下。

赵洪敦促民航局就飞行员流动建立新的、合理的监管规定。已经在这份请愿书上签名的这430名航空公司飞行员中大多数来自中国三大航空公司——中国国航、中国南方航空股份有限公司(China Southern Airlines Co.)和中国东方航空股份有限公司(China Eastern Airlines Co.)，这三家航空公司的合计乘客运力占中国航空业乘客运力的80%左右。

一些飞行员还抱怨国有航空公司的工作时间太长，而且不规律，这是促使他们跳槽的一个原因。去年4月份辞职的国航另一位前机长陈立昆（音）说，在国有企业管理结构下，他有许多行政职责，而且要参加很多会议，他感觉这些职责和会议非常太消耗时间，而且令人厌烦。

陈立坤与驻浙江省的其他10多名国航前机长一起就他们的跳槽计划对这家航空公司提起诉讼。他说，他2011年升任机长时，年薪涨至人民币50万元左右，但如果他加入私人航空公司，他的薪水可能会高出30%-40%。

当被问及飞行员的抗议活动时，国航执行董事樊澄说，任何时候当员工有抱怨或者建议，我们对他们的想法一直持开放态度，并且愿意聆听。

南航拒绝置评，记者无法联系到东航置评。