National News

MULTAN, (APP): Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) opened
its 8th training centre for offering a two-year Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Training Programme in Aerospace and Avionics Engineering.
PIA Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr. Bernd Hildenbrand inaugurated the
Centre here on Tuesday.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Mr. Hildenbrand said that the
establishment of centre in Multan would provide students belonging to
this region a lifetime opportunity of making lucrative careers in
aviation industry as licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers.
He said the fast growth of aviation industry, especially in the
Middle East, was facing an acute shortage of technical manpower,
especially in the field of Aviation.
As per Boeing’s Industry outlook, there will be a gap of more than
50,000 aircraft technicians and engineers in the Middle East alone in
the next 5 to 10 years, he added.
COO PIA said through PTC the country will not only be manage to produce
valuable technical manpower for aviation industry, but also
earn foreign exchange through our talented boys and girls making their career in aviation industry across the globe.
He said PIA was planning to obtain EASA 147 approval for PTC, which will
help its graduates have better job opportunities.
In August 2014, PTC became the first institute to be awarded ANO 147
approval in the entire region.
Hildenbrand also took a round of the campus and was briefed by PIA’s
Director Training and Corporate Planning, Mr. Amir Ali and Principal PTC, Mr. Sohail Mahmood about the facilities.
Later, Mr. Hildenbrand held a meeting with PIA employees working at
Multan station, and discussed ways to improve the airline’s operations
from this area.
With addition of Multan, PIA now has training centers at eight locations
including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Swat,
Nawabshah, Quetta and Multan. Expansion of PIA Training Centre (PTC)
began in October 2014 and around 600 students are studying in these
centers. The graduates after obtaining two years of practical training
would be as Aircraft maintenance Engineers.