Crisis or opportunity: Covid-19 and development of aircraft maintenance technicians

Pramote Anunvrapong

To review the current and future aviation situation, it is important to look back at the past, especially prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. A decade earlier, the aviation industry experienced a very high rate of growth in all areas, particularly in the passenger side, which grew by 5 to 6 per cent a year with the creation of new airlines, in every region until the aircraft manufacturing companies could barely keep up with the bookings. As a result, the delivery of each aircraft takes years. The number of planes in service around the world surged to more than 20,000 in 2019. However, that happened in the past, to which the industry is waiting for a return.

At the end of 2019 an unexpected event happened – the appearance of the coronavirus, known as the Covid-19 pandemic, which escalated at the beginning of 2020. The pandemic has had an adverse effect on the aviation industry because of the panic caused among tourists and people travelling from affected areas. At the end of the first quarter of 2020, the outbreak began spreading rapidly, with many cities being placed in lockdown in many countries. As a result, international travel, especially for tourism, stopped abruptly in the second quarter of this year, which had a huge impact on the aviation industry – with the number of flights decreased to just 30 per cent of the flights in the previous year.

The 2020 Covid-19 outbreak has had a serious negative impact on the global aviation industry. The tremendous decline in the numbers of passengers have made it impossible for the airlines to operate. In particular, airlines that mainly operate international flights have been affected much more seriously. It has been reported that airline bankruptcy filings continued in the middle of this year, and many airlines were facing possible bankruptcy because of the lack of financial liquidity to continue their business. Many airlines that are still in business have taken measures to cut costs by decreasing the salary of all personnel as well as creating incentives to accept resignations or leave without pay. Some airlines stopped paying salaries because they had no work, but retained their contracts pending the recovery of the industry.

The current situation has remained the same at the end of the third quarter of this year. The Covid-19 pandemic has escalated. The number of infected people worldwide has exceeded 30 million. Some countries are experiencing second and third outbreaks. Consequently, international travel is still seriously disrupted, together with the economic recession, the tourism industry has been severely affected. Looking back, the aviation industry is beginning to see some improvements, but only in the domestic aviation segment which has improved over the second quarter. The number of flights have returned to 50 per cent of that recorded in the same period of 2019 (most of which have been domestic flights). However, if any countries experience a new outbreak, cities will be placed under lockdown again and again.

As a result, the future of aircraft maintenance technicians in Thailand is both critical and an opportunity. The crisis caused by the contraction of the industry has greatly reduced the workload due to the huge decrease in the number of flights. This has resulted in a major decline in the demand for aircraft maintenance technicians. However, given the existing number of aircraft maintenance technicians in the system, it is still not an overwhelming problem because before the Covid-19 pandemic, many airlines still needed more aircraft maintenance technicians. In addition, the educational institutions that produce graduates in this field are very few compared with the need to cope with the existing workload. The crisis of aircraft maintenance technicians may therefore be less serious compared to other jobs in the same area of business.

On the other hand, the opportunity now exists for upgrading aircraft maintenance technicians into highly-skilled repair technicians

in line with international standards. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) drafted a new, more internationally-related aviation law. In accordance with the new law, most legally licensed aircraft maintenance technicians need to be trained and tested in the new standards set during law transition. In the past, many airlines had expected it to be difficult to develop scheduled aircraft maintenance technicians as most were overloaded with work, which means application of the new law will take two to three years. Therefore, during that period, the training courses and examinations for maintenance technicians to earn the new legal license can be introduced immediately and effectively. This will help to strengthen the application of the law and improve domestic aviation standards in the future.

Therefore, this transition period provides an excellent opportunity for the educational institutions concerned to be upgraded to ATO (Approved Training Organization) status, with international standardised courses and personnel, according to the CAAT. These institutions will then provide a sufficient number of training centres to support the training for upgrading existing aircraft maintenance technicians as well as produce a new generation of technicians with international standards. The recovery of the airline industry, following the end of the Covid-19 crisis may take one to two years. By that time, Thailand will have become the leader in regional aircraft maintenance by highly-skilled aircraft maintenance technicians in accordance with international standards. The country will then be ready to operate as an aircraft maintenance hub, as defined in development plans, with the operation of related organizations such as the U-Tapao Aircraft Maintenance Centre and a factory for manufacturing aircraft parts, which are being set up as an additional production base in Thailand.

Contact details: Pramote Anunvrapong Assistant Professor and Instructor Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep (Former Dean at Faculty of Engineering and Former Accountable Manager Part 147@UTK) Tel: +66 2 287 9600 Ext. 7094 pramote.a@mail.rmutk.ac.th https://eng-ete.rmutk.ac.th