Jetstar Pacific’s engineers get VAR66 licenses

Seventeen Vietnamese aircraft maintenance engineers of the budget airline Jetstar Pacific, for the first time, have got Cat B practice licenses (VAR66 Licenses).

Jetstar Pacific has announced that three out of the 17 engineers have successfully passed the exam for CRS (Certificate Release to Service) under the strict supervision of foreign experts in order to be able to officially to undertake the role of Cat B degree engineers at the air carrier. The other 14 engineers will be tested to have their ranks upgraded in the time to come.

Le Song Lai, General Director of Jetstar Pacific, said that this is a very important milestone in the 20 year history of the air carrier. As such, Vietnamese engineers were able to meet the high qualification level that to date, at Jetstar Pacific, only foreign engineers were able to meet. This shows that if airlines follow reasonable investment policies and offer reasonable personnel policies, Vietnamese workers completely have the capability, determination and professional knowledge to undertake key positions in airlines.

Cat B is one of the most important certificates in the supervision of the maintenance and repair of aircrafts. Only the engineers with Cat B have the right to certify aircrafts to be put into operation. In order to reach a Cat B degree, aviation engineers have to go through long training and they have to master the knowledge about aircraft techniques, laws and the production process of an airline.

In general, after meeting strict aviation standards and getting Cat B licenses, aircraft maintenance engineers, will still have to pass the exam for CRS in accordance with VAR145 requirements before they officially undertake the role of Cat B engineers at airlines.

After every two years of working continuously (the interruption must not be longer than six months), Cat B engineers need to follow training courses to upgrade knowledge and skills and need to have practice licenses extended by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) to be able to get the CRS in accordance with VAR145 extended.

In the current circumstances, when high quality labor force is lacking in the aviation market, according to Le Song Lai, the fact that Jetstar Pacific has qualified Vietnamese engineers who meet Cat B level should be seen as a good factor in development of the local labor force. The labor localization allows the air carrier to cut down the operation expenses, while it will allow passengers to get more opportunities to purchase cheap air tickets.

Jetstar Pacific now has 22 foreign engineers and three Vietnamese engineers who work as Cat B engineers. The other 14 Vietnamese engineers, after getting enough experience books, will take CRS exams in order to be able to undertake the role of Cat B engineers at the airline in the time to come.

Jetstar Pacific plans to have Vietnamese engineers account for 50 percent of its staff. They must be capable of undertaking important positions in the aircraft maintenance.

Together with the program on upgrading the skills of Vietnamese engineers and mechanical workers, the program on localizing the pilot force of Jetstar Pacific has initially gained positive results. Currently, three Vietnamese pilots have been working for Jetstar Pacific together with 56 foreign pilots. It is expected that from now to the end of 2011, 10 Vietnamese pilots whom the budget airline sent abroad to attend training courses will return to serve on Jetstar Pacific’s flights.

Jetstar Pacific now has a fleet of seven medium-range jets of two kinds, Boeing 737-400 and Airbus A320 which fly on HCM City – Hanoi, Da Nang, Hue, Vinh, Hai Phong and Hanoi – Da Nang. In the 20 year operation, Jetstar Pacific has 100 percent safe flights. – Vietnamnet

Tags: Jetstar Pacific