SINGAPORE—MRO majors are calling for the industry to generate an organic pool of aircraft technicians and engineers, even as talent is either moving away from the industry or to other players.
SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC), faced with a declining birthrate and an aging workforce in its home market, is engaging a number of overseas universities to ensure it has a diversified pipeline of fresh labor. Tan Hui Boon, SIAEC vice president for human resources, says signing bonuses can be used to meet urgent requirements but would not be sustainable for long-term labor generation.
“A lot of times [signing bonuses] are necessary to meet the immediate needs, and that is why, for us, there is a need to do projections into the future. And when you actually project into the future the continuing practices of signing bonuses for the existing limited pool of experienced personnel, it's just going to push your manpower cost up to a point where it's not sustainable,” Tan says here at MRO Asia-Pacific 2024 in Singapore.
“If you look at the actual [forecast for required talent], it's actually quite terrifying, and that is why we know that within Singapore we're not going to get enough. Therefore, we are going overseas to generate pipelines,” she says.
Tan was referring to the Boeing Technician Outlook, the latest version of which predicted a need for 716,000 new technicians in the next 20 years—103,000 of which will be needed in southeast and northeast Asia.
Taiwan’s Evergreen Aviation Technologies (EGAT) is also concerned about dwindling birthrates and is seeing talent leave for more attractive and promising sectors, such as the semiconductor industry, headlined by TSMC and Nvidia.
Kin Chong, EGAT executive vice president, said the situation is exacerbated by prohibitive labor legislation that prevents the import of talent. The company is facing a shortage of experienced engineers in the 10–15-year experience bracket, he says. These team members are crucial for training newcomers and imparting knowledge, he explains.
Chong adds that he has had to turn away business to maintain safety and quality standards.
Benjamin Scheidel, HAECO group director of airframe services, does not expect labor issues to go away. On top of maintaining a steady workforce stream, he says companies have to start investing in digital solutions such as robotics and automation to reduce dependency on workers, while at the same time increasing the engagement and productivity with the new generation of talent.
