Aircraft maintenance engineering has played an important part in helping the commercial and industrial development in Hong Kong. Since the early 50s until today, air service is experiencing an ever expansion from the Kai Tak airport era to the new Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at Chek Lap Kok. In 2007/08, according to the Airport Authority Hong Kong (HKAA), the number of flights reached 300,000, carried 48 million passengers and 3.8 million tonnes of cargo. these figures have made HKIA among the top 5 busiest airports in the world.

The blooming economy and tourism in the neighbouring regions have led to the continuous development of the aviation industry in Hong Kong. At the turn of the century, Hong Kong economy began to take shape and aircraft maintenance engineering which at the same time had expanded to cope with a much larger volume of air traffic services. Today aviation industry has become the corner stone of the Hong Kong economy.

At the time when the Hong Kong economy was picking up, local universities had provided programs to train technical personnel enabling them to work in aircraft engineering. Aviation industry recognizes professional training is essential to ensure the quality, safety and airworthiness of the business. Hence, many organizations in the industry have provided different kinds of training for their own staff. If all the training organizations can join effort to develop a comprehensive training curriculum, that will certainly benefit the industry as a whole and, on the other hand, also provide professional development pathways to the people who wish to join it.

Since 2005, the HKIA has been monitoring closely the situations in the passenger and cargo transportation market and the growing demand in the mainland, especially in the Pearl Delta region. In the same year, bus and direct ferry services were available, connecting passengers and cargo between the HKIA and the mainland. the cross border service network has integrated the sea, air and land transport together and enabled the HKIA to become a truly transportation hub. In order to cope with the huge demand on aircraft services, local aircraft maintenance engineering companies have plans to expand their business in the coming years. All the developments have helped the HKAA move a step further in working closely with the mainland. Today, Hong Kong has become the financial and air cargo transportation centre in Asia and, undoubtedly, her position is recognized in the international arena. The success relies on the long term contribution from a group of dedicated, hard working and progressive professionals who have been incessantly providing a stable, efficient, and competitive service and exploit their fullest potential to serve the industry. Providing quality aircraft maintenance service is essential in sustaining the long term development for the industry. It is expected that aircraft maintenance engineering would continue to play a significant role in assisting the prosperity for Hong Kong in futrue.

The development in aircraft maintenance engineering has been very stable and, in recent years, the industry needs to recruit large number of technical staff to cope with the ever increasing business. In anticipation of the opportunities brought by the growing economy and tourism, the industry will provide more job opportunities for young people who would like to engage in aircraft maintenance engineering.

At present, there are many different kinds of qualifications awarded upon completion of different training programs, but these programs are not necessarily relevant to the skills required by the industry nor are these programs quality-assured. Furthermore, in the absence of clear progression pathways, it is difficulty for the industry to recruit new talent. In 2003, VTC, in response to the request from the industry to provide training in the area of aircraft maintenance engineering, has launched a full-time Higher Diploma in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering course to the graduates from secondary schools to serve the industry. The graduates from the course provide well trained and recognized manpower to sustain the aircraft service business in Hong Kong. In fact, the education sector, apart from full-time courses, should consider offering part-time bachelor or master degree programs for the in-service professionals to upgrade their level of academic attainment.