Nairobi — Kenya Airways is interviewing 40 European pilots this week in a move to stem a short-term shortage of African pilots.

The national carrier is also scrambling to set up a pilot training school as early as next year to cut costs of training pilots abroad, Managing Director Titus Naikuni said.

Pilot instructors will come to Kenya from Malaysia next month as a first step towards setting up the KQ pilot training school.

He said KQ would train its own pilots using company funds, adding that the government should help train Kenyan pilots. " "

"I have spent over half a billion shillings in training of pilots", he said, adding that by next year, " I will be training my pilots here in Kenya as a measure to cost cutting".

Naikuni said the school is expected to be operational by next year. Currently, Kenya Airways pilots are trained in Addis Ababa and South Africa.

KQ has seen rapid expansion and has consequently been experiencing a shortage of pilots. Noting that training of pilots is a very expensive task, Naikuni said KQ must go out of the way to get the best pilots in the market.

However, the Kenya Airlines Pilot Association (KALPA) has warned the airline over the plans to hire foreign pilots, saying that the move will be met with resistance from local pilots. The pilots have threatened industrial action if foreign pilots are employed without Kalpa being consulted.

Naikuni said the interviewing of 40 pilots follows an agreement with Kenya's Ministry of Transport last week.

"We are signing an agreement this week with pilots from Europe. Interviews are expected to start by Thursday," he said.

The call for government support in the training of pilots was echoed by the Chief Executive Officer of African Airways Express, Capt Musa Bulhan.

"I have trained my own pilots and I think the government should come in and support the industry by loaning funds to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority to train Kenyan pilots," he said.

Naikuni and Captain Musa said that, the only school, which was training pilots in Uganda, is no longer there. Under the former East African Community, the East Africa School of Aviation (Kenya) and the Tanzania Civil Aviation Training Academy, were to train engineers, air navigation services, air worthiness and aviation security while Soroti School of Flying was to train pilots.

"Soroti stopped training pilots between 1977 - 78. The EAC has been reborn, but Soroti School has not started training", said Capt Musa. "In 5 years to come the old pilots will retire; where is the future for our industry?" he asked.

Capt Musa said that the government should come up with a national integrated transport policy.