KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Chief Operating Officer Bernd Hildenbrand inaugurated a PIA Training Centre (PTC) in Multan on Tuesday. The centre would offer a two-year aircraft maintenance engineering training programme in aerospace and avionics engineering. With the addition of the Multan centre, the PIA now has training centres at eight locations. Other centres are in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Swat, Nawabshah and Quetta. Expansion of the PTC was started in 2014 and seven centres have been set up since. Around 600 students are currently studying in these centres. The graduates of these centres have become aircraft maintenance engineers after obtaining two years of practical experience. The Multan training facility has two classrooms, an examination hall and a library and it would start with 28 students. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Hildenbrand said the PTC in Multan would provide students belonging to this region a lifetime opportunity to pursue career in the aviation industry as licensed aircraft maintenance engineers. He said the fast growing aviation industry, especially in the Middle East, was facing an acute shortage of technical manpower, particularly in the field of aviation. As per Boeing’s industry outlook, there will be a gap of more than 50,000 aircraft technicians and engineers in the Middle East alone in the next five to 10 years, he said. Hildenbrand said through the PTC the country would not only be able to produce valuable technical manpower for aviation industry but also be able to earn foreign exchange through talented boys and girls making their career in the aviation industry across the globe. He said the PIA was planning to obtain EASA 147 approval for the PTC that would help its graduates find better jobs. In August 2014, the PTC became the first institute to be awarded the ANO 147 approval in the entire region. Hildenbrand took a round of the campus and was briefed by PIA Training and Corporate Planning Director Amir Ali and PTC Principal Sohail Mahmood about the facility. Later, Hildenbrand held a meeting with the PIA employees working at the Multan station and discussed ways to improve the airline’s operations from this area.