Many Australian pilots frustrated with their ability to receive a promotion to captain due to the seniority system and lack of growth at local airlines are heading to Asia and the Middle East where they are in high demand, according to pilot recruiters.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing this week forecast the Asia-Pacific region will need 226,000 new pilots over the next 20 years, but only 5 per cent of those will be needed in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. 
In the meantime, as Asian carriers expand, they are putting plenty of pilots through training courses - including at flight schools in Australia - but it is more difficult for them to find captains with thousands of hours of flying time to fill more senior roles that are needed as they buy new aircraft.
"We see that expat trend continuing," Boeing Flight Services vice president Sherry Carbary said. "But there are a lot of first officers in the Asian region. As they get more experience and more training we see more of them being able to become captains."
Kirsty Ferguson, the head coach and recruiter at Pilot Recruitment, said Australian pilots were heading overseas because it took so long for first officers to obtain a command locally.
The major carriers work on seniority based on the time of joining and the most senior pilots tend to only leave when they retire, leaving few new captain's positions available each year because fleet growth is relatively flat. Pilots receive a significant jump in pay when they are promoted from first officer to captain.
"You can be a first officer for nine to 10 years on a 777, let's say, and there is no command upgrade in sight," Ms Ferguson said of the market in Australia and New Zealand. "They are looking at places like the Middle East and places like Asia because there is a guaranteed upgrade because they are expanding."
Virgin Australia has 10 pilots on a three-year secondment program with Abu Dhabi-based partner Etihad Airways. Etihad says its average time to command for seconded first officers of partner carriers is around three years, compared with 10 to 15 years at most legacy carriers. 
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce this week said his airline had a "significant surplus" of pilots. Around 200 of the carrier's 2200 pilots are on leave without pay, which allows them to spend one to three years seconded to another airline without losing seniority at Qantas. Many are flying with Jetstar and Emirates, but some have headed to Asia.
But Mr Joyce said new opportunities would open up for Qantas pilots from 2017, when it begins to replace five older Boeing 747s with eight new 787-9 aircraft. "It is great news for the pilots going forward," he said. "We will have more captains positions as a consequence of that."
In the meantime, other carriers in the region lack enough experienced pilots. China Southern Australia and New Zealand managing director Louis Lu last month said the airline would like to expand more rapidly but it did not have enough pilots. Like Cathay Pacific, it allows some of its Australian pilots to base themselves in Australia.
Even less well known Chinese carriers tend to pay Western pilots well, with Beijing Capital Airlines recently advertising locally for an A320 captain based in China with monthly pay of up to $US24,166 ($34,144), depending on the hours flown.
That compares with Qantas, where annual base pay excluding allowances is around $63,000 for a QantasLink first officer on a turboprop and $115,000 for a QantasLink captain, $200,000 for an A380 first officer and $310,000 for an A380 captain.