Aviation India: Careers

New Delhi: US-based Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology is all set to start a new flying club in India, which will not only train pilots but will also offer courses in aeronautical engineering.
The college has already got the go-ahead from the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) and the institute is likely to be set up in Haryana soon.
The initiative is a joint venture with Indo-Pacific Aviation and Kubase Aviation, along with Atul Punj of Punj Lloyd. The JV will establish a flying training college and aircraft maintenance engineers school. The institution will conduct flying training for commercial pilots license for fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. It will also train both technicians and engineers for maintenance of the aircraft.
The school will, however, have to obtain locational licences and clearances from the Haryana government, Airports Authority of India and the director general of civil aviation (DGCA). The JV meets all the necessary FDI guidelines and has been supported both by the ministry of civil aviation.
Spartan has been training commercial pilots as well as engineers and technicians at the Spartan School of Aviation in US since 1928.
20/01/07 Gunjan Pradhan Sinha & G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

Mumbai: Engineers leaving an airline will now have to serve a two-month notice period and secure a no objection certificate from the current employer.
Top representatives of domestic airlines have signed a preliminary agreement for a two-month notice period for engineers and technical staff. According to sources, a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) on Tuesday took a final decision in this regard, and will communicate it to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “The notice serving period for engineers will be two months initially and later be increased to six months as in the case of pilots,” they said.
The DGCA had earlier brought in a regulation whereby a pilot has to give a mandatory six-month notice to his employer before resigning.
19/01/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

Because of the growing need for pilots in India, Cessna Aircraft is considering opening centers to offer flight training there.
If it does, it would join with Cessna's sister company, Bell Helicopter, which announced plans in India this week to establish a facility in India to train helicopter pilots.
"Cessna is considering the possibility of offering fixed-wing training in conjunction with Bell," Textron spokeswoman Karen Quintal said in an e-mail.
The rapid growth in civil aviation in India has created a shortage of fixed-wing and rotary-wing pilots, Quintal said.
Cessna also is looking at opening a series of Cessna Pilot Centers, which would use its existing computer-based flight training system, throughout India.
A time frame for a decision has not been set.
Cessna is establishing a Citation service center near Bangalore to support its efforts to sell Citation jets, Stangarone said.
18/01/07 Molly McMillin/The Wichita Eagle, US

Bangalore: Not wanting to let pilot shortage ground its sky-high aspirations, budget airline SpiceJet Ltd has come up with a novel way of facilitating cadets for pilot training in acquiring loans from banks at lower interest rates and an easy repayment scheme.
And, it is doing this by providing ‘surety of job’ to students wanting to enrol for training but cannot afford it. In effect, it is acting as guarantor for the students who borrow from banks for their course.
The low-cost carrier has tied up with the flying school - United Aviation - which helps students raise loans from Centurion Bank of Punjab. Under the scheme, students can raise a loan of up to 100% of their fees (close to Rs 16 lakh for both local and overseas training) at an interest rate of 9.5-10.5%, depending on their ability. This would not be repayable until six months of joining their service at SpiceJet. That is, the bank would start drawing EMI only after they have started earning their full salaries.
Besides United Aviation, Centurion Bank of Punjab has also tied up with other pilot institutes like Aerostar, High Fly and others for disbursing loans to commercial pilots training. In 2006, it has processed around 50 applications for commercial pilot licence.
United Aviation has begun talks with Bank of Maharashtra, J&K Bank and HDFC Bank.
The school has also approached Jet Airways for a tie-up. Meanwhile, SpiceJet is preparing to take on board the first batch of 24 pilots from this scheme in June this year. Even though this will meet only part of its requirement of 80 pilots this year, it would ease the pilot crunch to some extent.
16/01/07 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

Mumbai: Can a pilot do an engineer's job? The Directorate General of Civil Aviation thinks so. In a shocking decision taken this week, pilots have been deemed eligible to carry out pre-flight inspection of aircraft during transit halts.
The 15-20 minute inspection entrusted till now only to qualified aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) certifies whether the aircraft is safe to fly. It's a walk-around inspection of aircraft and engines from ground level and involves inspection for foreign object damage to engine, blades/propellers, condition of turbines, fuel-oil leak, proper closing and latching of cowls, checking the presence of metal in engine exhaust and identifying it, if any; condition of turbines and oil puddling, checking the condition of flight controls, presence of static discharges etc. The check also includes rectification of defects.
Now, bowing to pressure, apparently from the influential airline lobby, the DGCA has amended the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), series 'F', part VIII, pertaining to Airworthiness, effective January 26.
12/01/07 Manju V/Times of India

Next time you fly, don't necessarily expect a 30-something man to call the shots inside the cockpit. With the age graph dipping in this particular profession, it is possible that the pilot will be some teenager, with a tattoo on his/her back and who is still not permitted to celebrate his/her first flight with a drink later on. But make no mistake, these 18-somethings are as thorough with their work as any experienced pilots and have earned their degree.
Explains BC Gupta, director and chief instructor at the Centre for Civil Aviation and Training, "Earlier, since the infrastructure was not upto the mark, the trainees used to take more than two years to complete the course, the eligibility age was reduced from 23 years to 17 years. But now, an aspiring pilot can complete the two-year-long course in minimum one year in India. But if the same student goes to Miami, USA, or Canada, he can complete the same course in about nine months flat and have the Commercial Pilot License (CPL) in hand."
An industry insider says on the condition of anonymity, "There is no question of age in aviation industry now. More and more commercial carriers are opening up to recruiting younger pilots to ensure lower attrition rate. Considering pilots from other countries have outnumbered Indian pilots here, Indians carriers are keen on inducting Indian pilots, no matter how young they are."
11/01/07 Nikhila Pant/Times of India

New Delhi: In a move that would address low cost airlines’ long-pending demand – and will also be a global first – the government is considering a proposal to issue multiple pilot licences. It will allow a pilot to fly more than one type of aircraft within a category of aircraft or in multiple categories.
According to ministry sources, in November, the directorate general of civil aviation had already relaxed the norms on flying helicopters. A pilot under a single licence can fly both a single engine copter and a twin-engine (two rotors) helicopter and can also fly two different kinds of copters in one day.
However, globally, no major airline currently allows a pilot to fly more than one type of aircraft. It’s considered unsafe because of the totally different cockpit handling of aircraft since they belong to different manufacturers.
International carriers like the Singapore Airlines, Emirates also do not allow their pilots, even the ones trained on both, to fly two separate kinds of aircraft.
09/01/07 Atreyee Dev Roy/Financial Express

Mumbai: Shortage of pilots has been bothering Indian carriers for sometime now, but Air India seems to have found out a quick fix solution.
The Maharaja is now visiting colleges, picking up BSc students and after a quick pilot aptitude test, the national carriers will offer the students a pilot training abroad.
And when they get back, they will be required to join Air India. AI is also arranging bank loans for them, which will later be adjusted from their salary. In fact, their salaries will be equivalent to jobs post MBA.
"The selection process for the first batch is on. We will arrange for the bank loans, and on successful completion of the course, they will fly Air India," said V Thulasidas, CMD, Air India.
Air India will need at least 500 pilots over the next three years but rampant poaching prevalent in the domestic aviation industry is the only fear.
"We will have a bond with them. I don't see why they should leave. We are known to be good employer," said V Thulasidas, CMD, Air India.
09/01/07 Rumi Dutta Hardasmalani/NDTV.com

New Delhi: CFM International will shortly set up an Aircraft Engine Training School in India to impart advanced courses in maintenance of its CFM56 engine that powers all the short-and-medium haul Boeing 737s and a majority of Airbus 320 series aircraft.
Paul-Andre Chevrin, director of civil operations in India for the French aviation major Snecma, told India Strategic magazine that this will be the fourth school of its kind in the world and it would train some 500 engineers from India and other countries in South Asia.
Chevrin said that an evaluation was on to choose a suitable location for the school. This should be a place with substantial existing aviation activity.
CFM will provide two dedicated engines, one each for Boeing B737 and Airbus A320 applications, as well as instructors and the training material for the school. It is looking for a partner in India to provide the building and logistics for the school.
It has three similar schools at present - in the US, France and China.
07/01/07 Telugu Portal

New Delhi: Flying schools have reported an increase in the number of students from middle-class families. It’s education loans which have enabled aspiring pilots from these middle-class families to take wings.
Though the average cost of pilot training in India is around Rs 13 lakh, high salaries and shorter gestation periods have led to this trend.
Flying schools have tied-up with banks as cost of pilot training is exorbitant and interested candidates are now coming from middle-income families. Average salary of the parents of aspiring pilots is around Rs 25,000 per month, say experts.
Airlines have witnessed a similar trend. “We have more pilots from middle income families now, especially girls, as compared to last year,” said a SpiceJet official.
06/01/07 Vishakha Talreja/Economic Times

New Delhi: Owing to the shortage of pilots in the country and high salary offered, the aviation industry in India has witnessed an increase in the number of young pilots. About three years back, the average age of pilots at the entry level was around 23 years as compared to 20 years now and it will continue falling, say industry heads.
The minimum eligibility for CPL (commercial pilot licence) is 17 years and the average duration of course in India is two years. The average salary of an entry level pilot is Rs 1.5 lakh. According to DGCA, the average age of candidates in the last commercial pilot license (CPL) exam in October 2006 for was 19-20 years. Six months back, the flying hours required to attain a CPL were reduced from 250 to 200 by DGCA .Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi's (IGRUA) youngest student is just 17 years old. Currently, about 500 pilots are needed per year, whereas only 200 pilots are being trained every year in India. There are 39 flying training schools in India.
Many young aspirants fly overseas for training. The average duration of course is around 6-9 months abroad as compared to around two years in India. Though there are some private institutes with foreign tie-ups where the course duration is around one year.
With young minds at their service, airlines are not complaining. “It’s easy to train and mould them. Youngsters also adapt themselves easily,” says Harpreet A De Singh, deputy general manager, training operations, Air India. “We have seen an increase in the number of young pilots, especially women. Around 7% of our pilots are women as compared to 1% last year,” says a SpiceJet official.
05/01/07 Vishakha Talreja/Economic Times

Mumbai: Expatriate pilots are increasingly becoming a part of India's aviation industry and are poised to outnumber their Indian counterparts.
"An aircraft like, say, a Boeing 777-200 LR would need about 11 pilots for optimum aircraft utilisation, while a four-seater Cessna 172 could do with two pilots," says an airline official. Accordingly, it can be safely estimated that the 138 aircraft would need at least 1,380 pilots.
The situation has been like this for some time now. In 2005, 162 pilot licences were issued in India while 99 aircraft were registered, while in 2004 the number of licences issued was 159 as against the 60 aircraft registered.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel recently spoke of a demand for 2,500 pilots in the near future. With the present rate, India would take at least 7 to 10 years to meet that figure. Says Sean Butler, director, sales and marketing, Parc Aviation, a leading flight crew leasing company: "Analysts estimate that there will be a need for 8,000 pilots by 2020."
Interestingly, foreign pilots also fill the gap that the highly-in-demand Indian pilots refuse to. "With so many Boeings and Airbuses around, Indian pilots don't want to fly ATRs, and so we have foreign pilots fill in the vacancies," says Capt G Gopinath of Air Deccan.
Those owning private aircraft too have begun recruiting foreign pilots in full force.
04/01/07 Manju V/Times of India

Bangalore: Bangalore and Hyderabad greenfield airports should be open for travel by early 2008. Work at the Delhi and Mumbai airports is gaining pace, but airport operators across the country are having a hard time finding people to run these airports.
A back of the envelope calculation shows that by 2010 airports in India will need close to 100,000 trained people to operate and service airports across the country, compared with AAI’s current employee strength of 20,000.
According to the Air Traffic Control website, there is a shortfall of around 1,000 ATC officers in India. A head-hunter claims to have spoken to 45 candidates in an attempt to find the right person to head the construction of the new runway and terminal building at the Delhi airport.
The new greenfield airport in Bangalore needs 300 people across levels, while Hyderabad airport needs to recruit 800 people before the launch in early 2008. “The challenge is not to find well-educated people, but well-educated people with experience in airport operation and airport marketing,” says Albert Brunner, CEO, Bangalore International Airport.
04/01/07 Supriya Kurane/Economic Times

Mangalore:Kingfisher Airlines will utilise Bajpe airport of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for its pilot training activity from January 7. Initially, it will press into service an ATR aircraft and later an Airbus 320 for the training.
The training will fetch revenue to the AAI as for every landing and take off the airline has to pay a fee to the authority, the sources said.
It will also become the first airline to start pilot training activity here.
Two runways at the airport have come in handy for taking up pilot training activities, the sources said.
Another private company has planned to utilise the airport here as the base to operate its helicopter for a study to find out oil reserves in the Arabian Sea, according to sources.
The sources told The Hindu that the company would take up the study (oil rig operations) under the new exploration licensing policy of the Union Government.
04/01/07 The Hindu/konkaniworld, United Arab Emirates