Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Aviation University is equipping people with the right knowledge at the highest technology level to avail sufficient number of people for Ethiopian Airlines and other airlines in Africa countries, University Acting President Kassie Yimam said. In an exclusive interview with ENA, Acting President of Ethiopian Aviation University Kassie Yimam said there is a huge human resources gap in the aviation industry in Africa like pilots, aircraft maintenance technicians, aircraft maintenance engineers, aviation management. That's why Africa lags behind the rest of the world in terms of airline performance, aviation, manufacturing, operation, maintenance among others, he elaborated. To this end, the Ethiopian Aviation University is established to cater qualified people in these fields in sufficient numbers. The University has now been providing training and education for Ethiopian Airlines and African countries in different aviation professions. 'We are providing competent qualified professio nals in piloting, in aircraft maintenance, engineering, cabin crew and customer service agents.' Global forecasters indicate that there is a very huge gap in trend demand power, especially in Africa, Kassie indicated. Moreover, he elaborated that the Ethiopian Aviation University is making efforts to fill this gap. 'The aviation technology service industry is growing at a very fast rate in terms of technology. To go along with the technological developments across the aviation industry in the globe, we have started our degree programs, master's programs, especially in data science, AI, virtual reality, and so on.' African human capital can maintain at least the manufactured airplanes, he said, adding 'we have to start producing essential components for airlines operations.' Therefore, the university is in line with this vision of equipping people with the right knowledge at the highest technology level to avail sufficient number of people for Ethiopian Airlines as well as the rest of Africa. Moreover, h e illustrated that the university has built its capacity, facilities so that it can cater training services for Ethiopian Airlines as well as for other African training centers, organizations, airlines, MROs, pilots, technicians, maintenance engineers. The over six decades old, the Ethiopian Aviation University, the former Academy, is a world class Aviation Training Center equipped with state of the art and best in class training equipment and technology. Source: Ethiopian News Agency