January 09, 2008
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.

Air Service Training (Engineering) chief executive Peter Farrow who flew in from Scotland on Tuesday said that there is currently a large gap between existing AMEs and the younger generation of AMEs. “There is a genuine shortage because of several factors that affected the aviation industry such as changing economies, the Sept 11 tragedy and SARS that resulted in no training being carried out for several years,” he said.
Farrow added that China alone needed 210,000 AMEs in the next five years.
NUC president Professor Emeritus Tengku Datuk Shamsul Bahrin said the aviation industry was rapidly expanding
and as a result, the demand for AMEs will continue to grow.