Low-cost carrier Citilink, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, recruited 70 candidate pilots to boost the company’s business expansion after a three-month enrollment process from June to August this year.
Citilink president director Albert Burhan said that the company had chosen the candidates out of 897 applicants from across country.
“We need to recruit more pilots to undertake our expansion and open new routes,” Albert said at the Garuda Indonesia Training Center (GITC) in Jakarta on Monday.
The recruited pilots will undergo a series of training at the GITC and at the Airbus training centers in Toulouse, France, and Florida, US, for at least six months. They will exercise to achieve a “type rating” as is required to operate an Airbus A320.
Garuda Indonesia human resources director Linggarsari Suharso warned the candidate pilots that working as a pilot was a difficult job. A pilot must prioritize the safety of passengers over other considerations, he said.
“Safety is the top priority in the transportation business,” he said at the training center on Monday.
According to data from the Transportation Ministry last year, Indonesia needs at least 600 new pilots every year. Meanwhile, 24 pilot schools across the country graduate from 15 to 24 students each annually.