|
Airlines may scout for foreign pilots
Sify - India
New Delhi: With the Indian aviation industry progressively
expanding, airline companies are encountering a new problem
- shortage of experienced pilots to operate the proposed
flights. And to get over this impediment, several airlines
are planning to employ foreign pilots.
Admitting the problem, the President of Air Sahara, Rono
Dutta, said there was a unique phenomenon in India. "Most
countries have a fairly regular flow of pilots from the Air
Force, but that is not the case here. In India, it is a
trickle from the Air Force, not a flow. We will also have to
look to get some expatriates. They will probably be for the
position of commanders. We have not yet decided on the
numbers. But this problem will not delay any of our plans,"
Dutta said.
With Jet Airways and Air Sahara having been given permission
to operate to London and the former also getting the nod to
fly to the United States the need for trained pilots will go
up.
At present there are said to be about 2,000 licensed pilots
in the country, with nearly half of them being employed by
the airlines operating regular flights. Most others are
attached with individual companies or with airlines that
offer chartered services while some hold the commercial
pilots licence but are not into regular flying.
On the other hand, the unfolding aviation scenario is
something like this: Air India Express has ordered 18 Boeing
737 aircraft and is likely to require close to 150 pilots,
Kingfisher Airlines has ordered 28 Airbus aircraft and would
require about 140 pilots, while Spice has ordered 20
aircraft and therefore its requirement is likely to be of
close to 100 pilots. This is just an illustrative scenario
as other airlines have also drawn up huge expansion plans.
Some airlines have already indicated their requirement. Air
Sahara is said to be looking for 70-80 new pilots and Air
India, which is planning low-cost flights to the Gulf and
the Far East is converting 20 pilots who would be posted as
co-pilots on Boeing 737s. AI does not operate Boeing 737s as
of now. This national carrier is also planning to hire close
to 20 foreign commanders for some of its existing overseas
operations.
The new airline from the Vijay Mallya group, Kingfisher
Airline, however, sees no major problem as of now. The Chief
Operating Officer of Kingfisher, Alex Wilcox, said that the
start up would look at employing about 20 foreign pilots
during the course of the coming summer. "We are getting the
aircraft in a phased manner with the first one arriving in
April. So getting a set of five pilots - which is the per
aircraft norm on the domestic sector- is not that
challenging," he added. This low-cost airline is planning to
launch services in May this year.
Officials of almost all airlines feel that the need of the
hour is to make the flying clubs in India more professional.
"There was a time when there were more pilots and less jobs.
Now the situation is the opposite. We need to get the flying
clubs to train pilots faster without compromising on safety.
Just look at the huge number of people going abroad to get
trained as pilots," an airline official said. |
|
