Aiming to avoid lost opportunities and ensure flight safety, Indonesian major airlines are taking steps to cope with the pilot shortage by investing in pilot training, local press said on Sep. 13.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, which often sees its pilots lured away by foreign airlines, plans to establish an aviation school, expected to open next year.

"We now have about 530 pilots. Most of them are highly experienced. The strong overseas demand for our pilots is partly because they are top quality," Garuda spokesperson Pudjo Broto was quoted by English daily The Jakarta Post as saying.

He acknowledged that the industry was facing a problem resulting from the increasing number of flights, with air traffic currently growing by 20 percent a year.

The country's only aviation school, the Indonesian Aviation Institute (STPI), can produce 45 pilots per year, which is much less than the current demand for its graduates.

The Transportation Ministry reported that as of the end of June alone, demand for pilots, including from abroad, had reached 535.

"Right now, we are still awaiting a license to establish the Garuda aviation school, which we expect to be up and running early next year," Pudjo said.

According to Pudjo, next year Garuda plans to buy 25 Boeing 737NG aircraft and hopes to have 10 Boeing Dreamliners in operation by 2011.

Mandala Airlines president director Diono Nurjadin said that pilot shortages had given rise to new opportunities for investment in pilot education.

"There are opportunities for investing in pilot training as the demand is growing rapidly. Surely there are plenty of investors who will be interested," he said.

In dealing with the pilot shortage, Diono said that his company planned to launch a bursary program to enable would-be pilots to train in aviation schools abroad, such as in the Philippines, Malaysia and China.

"Of course, the bursaries will be based on a contract so that the recipients will work for our company after they graduate," he said.

Mandala recently bought 25 Airbus A320 aircraft, with each plane purchase coming with a training package for their pilots, Diono explained. "We also plan to buy an A320 flight simulator for our training center," he said.

Adam Air is also moving to invest in a training center.

"We will open our own training center next year, where we plan to provide four flight simulators. We will install a Boeing 737-400 simulator, and we may also consider an Airbus A320 simulator," Adam Air president director Adam Suherman told the daily.

Adam refused to disclose the total amount of investment involved, but said that one simulator would cost between US$10 million and US$15 million.