Hanoi, Aug 18 (Agency) Vietnam’s aviation industry faces a severe human resource shortage due to the recovery of the tourism sector and the expansion of airports across the country, local newspaper Vietnam News reported on Thursday. There is significant demand for aviation professionals in airline companies and major airports such as Tan Son Nhat International Airport and the under-construction Long Thanh International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, and Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, the newspaper cited Tran Thi Thai Binh, head of the Vietnam Aviation Academy’s Air Transport Economics Department. Vietnam’s aviation industry employs around 44,000 individuals in transportation, port and flight operations. But the workforce fails to meet the industry’s growing demands, she said.
Ha Nam Khanh Giao, deputy director of the academy, suggested that Vietnam collaborate with foreign universities and training institutes to send students abroad for education.In addition to airport expansions, passenger numbers in Vietnam are gradually recovering. In the first seven months of this year, Vietnam transported more than 33.8 million air passengers, up 22.2 percent year on year, according to the General Statistics Office. The country welcomed more than 6.6 million international arrivals in the same period, of which arrivals to Vietnam by air accounted for 87.6 percent of the total, according to the office.