UDC 331.101

DISTRIBUTION OF AVIATION PERSONNEL LANGUAGE TRAINING COSTS AMONG THE EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION, THE OPERATOR AND THE SPECIALIST Distribution of Aviation Personnel Language Training Costs among the Educational Organisation, the Operator and the Specialist

Published in Journal of Applied Research · Issue 7, 2026 · ELocator: 157-164 · Rubric: ECONOMICS. ECONOMIC SCIENCES.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34755/t5469-2430-1488-n
Received: 04.10.2026 Accepted: 16.10.2026 Published: 16.10.2026
Language training for aviation personnel is expensive, and different parties end up paying for it. Sometimes the employer covers the cost, sometimes the specialist, and sometimes it is built into a university programme. There is no single rule here, and this article asks why that is and how the question might reasonably be settled. We show that language proficiency under ICAO requirements occupies an unusual position. Any airline recognises it, so the employee carries it freely from job to job, yet outside aviation it is of no use to anyone. The classical division of human capital into general and firm-specific does not cover this case, which is precisely why none of the parties feels obliged to pay for the training. We also draw attention to the fact that these costs are not one-off. An operational level certificate is valid for three years and an extended level certificate for six, so proficiency has to be confirmed again and again. Our calculation shows that a graduate brought up to the extended level spares the industry roughly half of all future checks, and in present-value terms the saving ranges from 53 to 60 per cent. The article also examines three established models of paying for training and proposes rules for sharing the costs sensibly.
aviation personnel language training, ICAO rating scale, human capital, industry qualification, cost sharing, proficiency revalidation, present value of costs, aviation labour market, economics of education
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