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 city, Vinh, Hai Phong
and Hanoi – Da Nang. In the 20 year operation, Jetstar Pacific has 100 percent safe
flights.

Ngoc Ha