Aviation is a growing industry, and that means manufacturers, flight schools, airlines and maintenance shops all need trained workers. To fill that need, a coalition of business and education leaders in central Florida is working on a plan to build a new aviation-themed campus at Orlando International Airport.

CYBERJAYA: There is a need to overcome the worldwide shortage of aircraft maintenance engineers (AME). Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the number of aircrafts has quadrupled in the past 20 years. “In order to maintain these modern aircrafts, there is a need for people with special skills and attributes,” he said at the launch of Nilai International University College’s (NUC) diploma in aircraft maintenance engineering yesterday.

The risks associated with being an Accountable Manager in aviation maintenance are only acceptable if the regulations are written and implemented to ensure no ambiguity exists.

Unfortunately EASA is bowing to commercial pressure by allowing effective Aviation regulations that are currently being drafted by the Agency to be compromised. Available Loopholes in methods of compliance are growing as more and more money managers force the industry to seek out the cheapest method of application in all aviation related areas due to relentless cost cutting (ref daily mail Aug 28 2007).

QANTAS is set to further inflame the tempers of its maintenance staff by unveiling "contingency" plans to offset threatened industrial action by its 1700 aircraft engineers.

The airline revealed its plans late December. These included the rescheduling of flights and the hiring of non-union licensed aircraft maintenance engineers (LAMEs) to counter industrial action due to begin on January 9.

Nearly precisely to the day, 50 years ago, a Tupolev-104A jet plane, in the colours of Czechoslovak Airlines, took off from Ruzyne Airport for its first scheduled flight to Moscow. It was a historic moment that carried the Airline into the jet age.