CONFLICTS between pilots and airlines came to light after 21 China Eastern Airlines flights turned back midway in Yunnan Province last week.

A shortage of pilots remains a major challenge for state-owned airlines with the emergence of private airlines and booming air travel.

China has 12,000 civilian pilots at present, but official estimates show that the total number of flights will increase 80 percent by 2010, requiring 6,500 more pilots.

However, the country is only able to train 600 to 800 pilots a year.

"It takes six to nine years to train a freshman to a captain for medium-sized aircraft, and eight to 12 years for large-sized aircraft," said Wu Tongshui, principal of the Civil Aviation University of China.

As it costs carriers millions of yuan to train pilots, they usually ask them to sign lifetime contracts with a clause requiring sizable compensation if they want to quit.

"In foreign countries, pilot training schools are like driver training schools, and the pilots pay for courses themselves," said Tian Baohua, director of the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China.

China Southern Airlines recently ordered one of its pilots, surnamed Guo, to pay 10.93 million yuan (US$1.56 million) when he resigned but a Wuhan court last week set the amount at 1.8 million yuan.

Hunger strike

Last May, China Eastern Airlines' Yunnan subsidiary asked one of its pilots, Zheng Zhihong, to pay 12.75 million yuan in compensation, and in July the carrier's Wuhan subsidiary required 13 pilots to pay 105 million yuan when they left.

Some pilots have gone on hunger strike and coordinated sick days to force companies to improve working conditions or waive compensation.

Last month, 40 pilots for Shanghai Airlines and 11 pilots for the newly formed Wuhan East Star Airline asked to be allowed to quit, according to some media reports. A pilot at a state-run airline told Shanghai Daily that the compensation clause was unfair for pilots but he could accept a lifetime contract as the carrier spent a lot of money on training him.

The CAAC East China Regional Administration issued a regulation that took effect on April 1 stipulating that an airline could not lose more than one percent of its pilots annually. It also stated that a pilot should pay compensation between 700,000 yuan and 2.1 million yuan to an airline for quitting.

"The shortage of pilots is a worldwide problem, and China can't solve it at present," said Ma Ying, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co. "The tension between pilots and carriers can be eased if employers are willing to raise pilots' wages or the aviation watchdog loosens the flow of pilots." She said domestic pilots' wages were much lower than their overseas counterparts.

In foreign countries, unions played an important role in the relationship between employees and companies, but in China the union's power was very weak. "We can't count on the labor union to solve the problem in China," Ma said.