Number of foreign airline captains growing

Chinese airlines employed 1,332 foreigners as flight captains as of the end of last year, an increase of 33 percent over 2016, according to an aviation industry report.

The captains came from 56 countries, with South Korea ranking first with 307, followed by Russia, Brazil and the United States, according to the Chinese Civil Aviation Pilot Development report released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The proportion of foreign captains among all captains employed by Chinese airlines also jumped in recent years - from 4.5 percent in 2015 to 8.2 percent in 2017, the report said.