Aviation India: Careers

Sabena Airline Training Center, 5010 E. Falcon Drive, is preparing the next generation of pilots to fly Boeing and Airbus aircraft for airlines in Europe and Asia.
In February, the company moved its training center from Scottsdale Municipal Airport to Falcon Field to accommodate growth as the company lines up more business with rapidly growing airlines in the developing world.
This year Sabena is planning to graduate 350 pilots, up from 220 last year. Also, the center is buying 13 new state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient training aircraft to supplement its mostly-Piper fleet. And the center is growing its staff from about 50 employees to 90 by June, Kris Van den Bergh, managing director of the center, said.
The growth is the result of contracts Sabena has signed to train pilots for Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet, both start-up domestic airlines in India.
In addition to a fleet of 25 light airplanes and two simulators in Mesa, the company operates six simulators at Brussels Airport that mimic Boeing 737 and Airbus A320/330/340 aircraft. Those simulators continue to be used by numerous European airlines to train their pilots.
Sabena doesn’t train any students for U.S. airlines, but the company employs mostly American flight instructors, Van den Bergh said.
The program involves 20 to 30 weeks of training in Arizona. Once they obtain their pilot’s license for general aviation aircraft, the students are qualified to go on for training in specific Boeing or Airbus aircraft in Brussels or in their own airlines’ training programs, he said.
The pilot training business is a big industry in Arizona. Online flight directories list more than 50 such schools in Arizona, which are attracted by the good year-around flying weather and wide-open air spaces.
28/03/07 Ed Taylor/East Valley Tribune, US

Mumbai: All activities at The Bombay Flying Club, India’s oldest flying club, were grounded for the past year and a half. Why? Because the club, which was founded in 1929 by JRD Tata, lacked a chief flying instructor (CFI).
But now there is hope for aspiring city pilots, as they will be able to complete flight training in at a school in Baroda. “After considerable effort on our part, the Directorate General Civil Aviation appointed a common CFI for the two schools. It will take us one more week to finalise things, after which students can start flight training,” said BL Bijlani, secretary of the Club
Till date, aspiring pilots, who were being trained here, had no option but to go to the United States or other countries to get their flying hours. “The shortage of CFIs has been very troublesome, as students had to wait for a long time to finish accumulating their flying hours and hence a majority of them used to go out (abroad). But the move to start flying activities in Baroda will be a relief,” said a source.
28/03/07 Daily News & Analysis

Seneca College's reputation in China is already well established. Mohammed Khan, the school's vice-president of International and Business Development, says anyone taking a flight on one of that country's domestic airlines, for example, will most likely be served by flight attendants who were trained the Seneca way.
Now the college has set its sights on India, which, because of its booming economy and burgeoning middle class of about 300 million people (slightly more than the entire U.S. population) finds its market for applied skills is accelerating, and Seneca wants to take advantage of the situation, Khan says.
This fall, the joint program between Seneca and the Provincial Academy of Learning Excellence in Nagpur in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management gets under way. Students in the program spend their first semester in Nagpur and can come to Toronto for their second semester.
"Seneca has started looking at India more closely for the last two years or so -- since 2005 -- and we have traditionally recruited students from India to come over to Canada and study here," Khan says. "On average we get about 150 students every year. What we've discovered is that because of the boom and the growth in the Indian economy -- the huge middle class, the growing infrastructure needs -- the demands for applied skills are increasing. (Indians) themselves are feeling the pinch in terms of skills shortages in many areas."
Some of the courses:
http://www.senecac.on.ca/fulltime/FPR.html
http://www.senecac.on.ca/fulltime/TFS.html
http://www.senecac.on.ca/fulltime/SCM.html

28/03/07 David Chilton/Toronto Sun, Canada

Picture this: 35 flying schools in India churn out only 150 pilots every year. While with the boom in the aviation sector India would need 10,500 pilots by 2010, the supply could fall short by a huge gap.
With shortage in the number of chief flying instructors (CFIs), limited number of aircraft, and large number of students, flying schools in India are facing a critical situation. Aspiring Indian pilots do not have many options and are now moving out of India for their training.
Analysts blame this situation on the 35 flying schools, of which only 18 are functional. Says a source, “It’s not only the shortage of CFIs but also the shortage of aircraft, coupled with the large number of students that makes it impossible for them to function.”
The flying schools are facing a hard time employing CFIs. Says Lt. Colonel VK Nadar Chief Manager, Ahmedabad Aviation and Aeronautics, “The pay of a CFI at a flying school is a lakh or two but a similar stint in the airlines can fetch them Rs3-4 lakh. We got a CFI from Canada, but he left us within six months. Then there was a CFI from Australia who left us in three months. We are also facing difficulties due to the lack of air space. We hardly get 15 flying hours due to an increase in flying activities. Hence we are shifting to the air fields in Mehsana.”
The numbers bring forth the stark reality. While there are vacancies for 5,200 pilots, only 4,100 Indian pilots and 560 expatriates are available.
Flying schools in metros have problems of their own. “In Mumbai and Delhi, where there are 35 flight movements in an hour, there is hardly any space for training. Hence flying schools are located in remote areas where the mandatory 200 flying hours can be achieved,” says a source.
“We get 44 inquiries, 22 mail inquiries and personal visits by aspiring pilots each day. As there is no flying activity in Mumbai, students have to either apply to other states or go abroad. Most of the students are going for the latter option.
There can be a way out of the trap. “If the DGCA becomes liberal in giving licences to private pilot training school which have all the required amenities, then the situation might come under control,” says Lubna Kadri, Director, Indian Aviation Academy, Mumbai.
The Academy has opened a flying school in UAE, which will start its classes from May.
While it takes two-and-a-half years for students to complete their pilot training in India, it takes just eight months or a year, elsewhere.
28/03/07 Megha Chaturvedi/Daily News & Analysis

New Delhi: The boom in the country's aviation sector is likely to result in the generation of nearly 2.5 lakh jobs by the year 2010, an Assocham report has said. According to the report, the civil aviation sector is also slated to become a Rs35,000 crore ( approx. $8.5 billion) industry in the same time frame.
The report, 'Aftermath of Commonwealth games 2010,' predicts that with the modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai international airports, and also with the revamping of 35 non-metro airports, airlines and airport-based industry are likely to create over 2.5 lakh jobs.
"We are talking of investments of up to Rs150,000 crore (approx. $36 billion) in this sector," said DS Rawat, Assocham secretary.
28/03/07 domain-B

Headhunters scouting for airport talent are eyeing staff at Singapore's Changi in hopes of luring qualified people to fill key positions in India, media reports said Wednesday.
Infrastructure giant GMR Group, leading the consortia tasked with building and running new airports in New Delhi and Hyderabad, has hired a recruitment firm in the city-state to fill 15 key positions in airport management, operations and ground handling, according to The Straits Times.
While foreign carriers such as Emirates regularly conduct pilot and cabin-crew recruitment exercises in Singapore and elsewhere, GMR is believed to be the first foreign airport operator to advertise for staff in the city-state in a significant way.
With Changi's reputed brand name and many more airport development projects in India, the Middle East and China coming up, keeping good people will be a growing challenge for the airport, said analyst Shukor Yusof of Standard and Poor's Equity Research.
Middle East companies have demonstrated they are prepared to 'over-pay' to attract good people, Yusof said.
GMR's recruitment drive coincides with a pay-structure review by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).
21/03/07 IANS/Malaysia Sun

Mumbai: Over the past few weeks, four senior ex-ecutives of Jet Airways, including the south-east Asia chief V Raja and head of train-ing Michael Tan have put in their papers. The airline brass in London is reportedly trying to hold back key senior executives.
At junior levels, the airline is losing people to domestic rivals who are aggressively taking away airport managers and cabin crew. "About 370 staff have resigned from the airport services division and 270 cabin crew have quit in the ten month period from April'06 to Janu-ary this year,'' said an insider. Attrition rates are about 30% in these departments, as airlines such as Indigo, SpiceJet and Kingfisher have picked up several people from Jet.
Responding to an official mail from ET on the issue, Jet Airways chief executive officer Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur said, "Our attrition rate is reasonably under control. Overall it is 10-15%. For crucial personnel groups like pilots, it is practically non-existent."
One of the reasons for people leaving at senior levels is the complaint that expat consultants virtually run the airline.
21/03/07 Cuckoo Paul/Economic Times

Maharashtra state is stuck in an awkward situation as far as its official aircrafts meant for VIPs are concerned. Till recently, the government had been struggling for pilots to fly their planes as their only pilot did not qualify the regulations. Now, two newly-recruited pilots are sitting idle as the state has failed to buy new aircrafts due to poor response from the aircraft companies.
Retired from Indian Air Force (IAF), the two pilots can’t do anything much but fly the only helicopter meant for the VIPs in the state. Even with an allocated budget of Rs38 crore, the state’s efforts to commission a new aircraft was unsuccessful with its appeal made through a tender failing to obtain a good response from aircraft companies.
After the Director General of Civil Aviation disqualified Navin Srivatsava, the only pilot working with the state, in November last year, the government neither had a pilot for several months nor were the private pilots willing to join the state services. It was only after state requested IAF to provide them with pilots that the two pilots were appointed.
“MN Dalvi and Sanjay Karve have joined us as pilots in the last couple of months at the salary of nearly Rs1 lakh a month,” said a senior officer from General Administrative Department. “We have Neetu Gupta as co-pilot. But she has no authority to fly an aircraft as she hasn’t completed 300 hours of her flying. We have been waiting for a good response from the aircraft companies as we have a budgetary allocation of Rs35 crore for a new Jet 400 XP aircraft,” he said.
20/03/07 Surendra Gangan/Daily News & Analysis

New Delhi: To cash in on the rapidly growing demand for pilots, Indian aviation academies are setting up training facilities abroad, where they can churn out pilots as quickly as in eight months, compared to almost two years that it takes in India.
While Mumbai-based Indian Aviation Academy has set up a facility in Dubai, Indore-based Yash Air, the largest pilot training academy in India, is planning to set up shop in Australia or UAE.
At least another ten academies are looking at a similar option, industry sources told Business Standard.
The phenomenal growth of the aviation industry in India has created a huge scarcity of pilots. There are 4,100 pilots currently available, along with 580 expats, though there is a total requirement of 5,200 pilots. By 2010, the demand is expected to climb to 10,500 pilots and the supply could fall short by up to 1,500, according to aviation experts.
Rules laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation say 200 hours of flying is required to get a commercial pilot’s licence. While that can take 14-18 months in India, on account of shortage of parking bays, aircraft etc, it can be completed abroad in just 6-8 months.
Also, while the Indian course has five exams, there are just three abroad. The three exams can be taken online at any time of the year. In contrast, the exams are held at a fixed time of the year in India.
20/03/07 Chanchal Pal Chauhan/Business Standard

New Delhi: The Indian aviation industry is besieged with a crippling problem of acute shortage of pilots which could jeopardise its multi million dollar expansion programmes.
"The total number of additional aircraft in the next five years is estimated at 500, for which an additional 5,000 pilots would be required," aviation ministry sources told
Currently, 2,940 pilots are employed as against the requirement of 3,160 pilots, leaving a shortfall of around seven per cent, they added.
They cited that though Indian Airlines has no shortage of pilots, Air India has a shortfall of 118 pilots.
The government was planning to hike seats in the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uraan Academy to 100 from the present 40, sources said.
Besides, the government was finalising plans to set up a world-class training academy at Gondia in Maharashtra while permitting Air India to recruit graduates in science and engineering as cadet pilots.
18/03/07 Zee News

Mumbai: India’s two largest airports--Delhi and Mumbai--have just 100 air traffic controllers guiding 500 planes daily, nearly 40-50% short of the requirement. The 87 domestic airports have just 1,000 air traffic controllers, grossly inadequate for the booming aviation sector. At 2,500 flights per day, India needs a minimum of 2,500 ATCs. Yet, an official from the Airport Authority India (AAI) admitted that no ATCs have been recruited in the last five years.
With the domestic airlines asking the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for permission to operate 40% additional flights this summer, taking the daily total to 3,500, up from 2,500 in the summer of 2006, this shortage is set to become acute. Additional flights would add to the work pressure of the existing ATCs, since there would be 600 flights each day over Mumbai and Delhi airports this summer.
An operations head with a domestic airline said, “The task of ensuring safe operations of commercial and private aircraft falls on an ATC. In India, especially at the metro airports, the ATCs have to guide an aircraft every three minutes for take-offs and landing. There should be adequate traffic controllers to guide the movement of aircraft.”
The situation has reached alarming levels where an ATC guides planes through some 14-15 routes at the same time.
17/03/07 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

San Diego: San Diego Flight Training International (SDFTI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Apace Consultants to begin training hundreds of student pilots from India and throughout Southeast Asia. The MOU established a framework in which students bound for India-based airlines will be referred to SDFTI for flight training, using the school’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved commercial multiengine curriculum with additional elements that meet specific requirements of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commercial pilot license guidelines.
The SDFTI professional “DGCA” pilot program has been developed to quickly and safely provide Indian students with all the necessary training to earn US FAA Private, Instrument, Commercial, and Multiengine certificates and ratings while meeting all Commercial DGCA standards. SDFTI takes people with no flying experience through the courses needed to operate as a commercially certified multiengine professional aviator in six and a half months.
15/03/07 Business Wire (press release), US

Cubex India, a company in Mumbai that sells and helps maintain mining and other heavy equipment, is teaming up with Canadian flight training school Winnipeg Aviation and Canadian education institution Red River College to establish an ab initio training school in India.
“We have shortlisted three airports in India,” Cubex India managing director Hemant Shah says from Mumbai.
One is a commercial airport and the others are non-commercial airports, says Shah, adding that “I prefer to have the school at a non-commercial airport so” there are fewer restrictions on flying.
Shah says he hopes to open the school within 12 months and it will start with a student intake of around 34.
It will have six primary trainer aircraft, a mix of Cessna 152s and Cessna 172s, and one Piper Seneca, says Shah, adding that he has had preliminary discussions with Cessna.
He says the school will start with three or four instructors, all of whom will come from Canada.
Canadian flight training school Winnipeg Aviation will be Cubex India’s main partner in the venture and the two companies are familiar with each other.
Cubex India has already sent Indian students to the Canadian flight school. Shah says 34 students were sent to Winnipeg Aviation in the Canadian city of Winnipeg and 11 have graduated, some of whom are now working for Indian carriers such as SpiceJet and Indian Airlines.
08/03/07 Leithen Francis/Flight International

The global aviation market is set to rain large deals on Indian companies. A CLSA Asia-Pacific study shows there will be a $18-billion business opportunity over the next five to seven years. This demand has resulted in Indian aviation companies ramping up their headcount.
Public sector aviation giant HAL is looking at hiring no less than 800 engineers by 2007-end. The company is sitting on an orderbook of Rs 35-45,000 crore.
According to industry estimates, in three years, more than 1 lakh jobs will be created in the engineering services industry alone, including aerospace in India. Software majors like Wipro, Satyam and SMEs like Quest and CADES are also looking at increasing their headcount significantly by the year-end.
Wipro, which currently has 450 engineers in its aerospace division, is looking at doubling its headcount in a year.
Satyam, too, is looking at increasing its headcount, however, the company declined to provide the exact numbers.
French aerospace major Safran, which has its largest R&D centre in Bangalore outside France is also looking at total headcount of 1,100 by 2010. Currently, it has 400 employees in its aerospace division and its expects to hire 150 engineers by 2007-end.
Quest and CADES are also hiring 150 and 500 aerospace engineers respectively.
As with most rapidly growing sectors, the aerospace sector, too, is facing manpower crunch. In a bid to tackle this issue, most of these companies have collaborations with academic institutions to develop a future quality talent pool. Safran is exploring partnership possibilities with Indian and French universities.
Quest runs its own training academy CADAM (Centre for Advanced Design and Manufacturing) at several engineering colleges in India.
09/03/07 Urvashi Jha/Economic Times

Bangalore: American School Aviation (ASA) on Thursday said it plans to train 1,000 Indian students to become commercial pilots in the next 12 months.
Students will be provided preliminary training at ASA India's Gurgaon centre, followed by academic and flight training at the California facility of ASA, Vice-President of ASA USA, Reny Kozman, told reporters here.
She said 45 graduates of ASA, which began operations in April 2002, are already employed by airlines in India. Kozman said ASA has a strategic arrangement with Kingfisher Airlines to recruit young pilots.
"We are in advanced talks with Jet Airways and initial stage of discussions with FedEx India," Kozman said.
08/03/07 Times of India

New Delhi: The number of privately-owned aircraft in the Indian corporate sector have risen from about 50 — two years ago — to 120 currently. And, about 600 pilots are required to fly these machines, though only 450 are available.
Aviation sources say that the scarcity has attracted about 140 foreign pilots to India in the past two years and also sent pilots’ salaries skyrocketing.
They are now paid an average monthly package of about Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. Besides this, concepts like hourly flying rates and “on-demand pilots” are also becoming common.
Not surprisingly, both, pilots as well as the aviation companies, are cashing in on the current boom.
“The trend of part-time pilots is on the rise. People are leaving airline jobs and flying aircraft from the corporate sector, where, if they work on an hourly basis, they get around Rs 10,000 per hour, as against Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per hour in airlines,”says Yashraj Tongia, promoter, Yash Air Limited, a private pilot training academy.
He added that his company is currently setting up a team of 30 pilots to lease out to corporates on hourly basis or on short-term assignments.
According to civil aviation ministry sources, new players like realtor major DLF, TVS Motors, power and airport major GMR Group, Hero Group and consumer durables giant Videocon are in the process of acquiring their own aircraft.
Further, players like Reliance Industries, the UB Group, Bajaj Auto, Kalyani Forge and the Raymonds group, are adding to their existing individual fleet of aircraft. According to aviation experts, the current number of 120 aircraft will go up to about 300 in the next 3 years.
09/03/07 Chanchal Pal Chauhan/Business Standard

New Delhi: American Airlines on Thursday said it will shift its Asia Pacific Call Center operations to India from Australia.
The company has also entered into an agreement with Bird Information Systems, a provider of automated aviation and travel related software solutions, to provide Call Centre services to its customers in India and Asia Pacific region, an American Airlines statement said here.
Under the contract, BIS would handle its customers request related to travel bookings, reservation, fares and ticketing, including e-tickets, among others, it said.
While the outsourced city ticket office operations for the company is carried out in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, the Call Center operations run from Delhi, it said.
08/03/07 Zee News

Muscat: The Ministry of Manpower in collaboration with Emirates Airlines will hold an open day for job-seekers holding secondary school certificates, on Friday, at Higher Technical College, Muscat.
During the day, personal interviews will be held for the applicants for the post of cabin crew at Emirates Airlines.
This is the second open day jointly organised by the Ministry of Manpower and Emirates Airlines. A total of 16 male and female youths were selected for the post of cabin crew in the last open day.
Launched in 1985, Emirates is the international airline of the United Arab Emirates, based in Dubai. It operates services to the Middle East, Far East, Europe, Africa, Indian subcontinent, Asia-Pacific and North America. Its main base is Dubai International Airport.
05/03/07 Times of Oman/Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Jordan

Mumbai: If you have chosen Arts instead of Science for your graduation and yet dream of becoming a pilot, the airlines are lending wings to your hope. They are now planning to recruit Arts graduates too for the job of pilots. Chennai-based full service carrier Paramount Airways is planning to set up a pilot training academy.
M Thiagarajan, Managing Director, Paramount Airways, says: "Why would one restrict an Arts graduate from pursuing the dream of becoming a pilot. Flying is all about aptitude of a candidate." Thiagarajan, one of the youngest airline chief in the world and a pilot by himself, says the proposed training school would select fresh graduates on the basis of written test and interview which will be followed by training.
The training academy will be housed in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) and have a tie-up with an international university.
Sources say Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer may partner with Paramount Airways in setting up the academy.
Initial pilot training for a fresh graduate will cost at least Rs 3 lakh (for a PPL - private pilot license) while it will be around Rs 15 lakh for a commercial pilot license (CPL). In the US, the same will cost around Rs 17 lakh.
Air-India sources say over 2,000 candidates appeared for the eligibility test for pilot training conducted by the airline.
"Jet Airways and other leading airlines are taking fresh candidates with CPL.. The move to recruit fresh graduates will help meet the shortage situation," said an industry source.
05/03/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

According to Dinesh Keskar, senior VP of sales, Boeing, “ Indian flying schools only churn out pilots with a commercial pilot license (CPL) or private pilot license, and they hardly possess the expertise to fly the sophisticated aircraft of today’s airlines.” Pointing to the lack of infrastructure in flying schools, Saroj Datta, a director at Jet Airways, says, “Not only is there a shortage of aircraft in these schools, they often do not have sufficiently qualified trainers. So, it is rather difficult for us to employ the pass-outs of such institutes.”
Given the acute shortfall, airlines are resorting to foreign pilots—a measure which S Venkat, executive director, Air-India describes as an “interim but important measure.” Often, these foreigners, who are mostly from Eastern Europe, are not even proficient in English. But that doesn’t worry the airlines because, as Bruce Ashby, CEO & president, IndiGo puts it, “For us, it’s not a case of preference. Qualified foreign pilots who have flown as captains on the same type of aircraft at another carrier can move straight into captain positions. On the other hand, CPL holders (whether Indian or foreign), who have just passed out from a pilot training school require many years to reach that level.”
A part of the experience required by CPL holders to become full-fledged pilots is time spent in simulators—also in short supply in the country.
Another strategy that airlines are using to cope with the shortage is to send their pilots abroad for training. Recently, Air-India announced a move to send at least 150 aspiring pilots, preferably engineering graduates, for training to Europe and Australia. JetAirways also plans a similar move. Indian Airlines, on the other hand, neither has to employ foreigners nor does it have to send its pilots to foreign schools. An official source informs FE that all its pilots are trained at its air-university in Hyderabad, which has state-of-the-art facilities for pilot training. In fact, other airlines send their pilots for training to this institute.
Though the shortage of pilots may be acute now–aggravated by the poaching of Indian pilots by Gulf carriers--the industry expects the situation to improve with time. Indian even though the demand for pilots is expected to be between 7,500 and 8,000 by 2010, a the number of flying schools with advanced training facilities that are now coming up across the country should ease the situation considerable. Boeing has set up a flying school in Mumbai that has Boeing 737 simulators. The Airports Authority of India will also set up an air school in Gondia soon.
03/03/07 Arunima Chakraborty/Financial Express

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today dismissed an aspiring flight steward’s petition challenging rejection of his job application by Air India.
Manish Tokas had answered an advertisement issued by the public airline in 2004, calling for applicants from the OBC category.
Tokas, who belonged to the Jat community, was duly selected by the airline through a written test, followed by an interview.
However, he later received a communication from the airline in July 2004 expressing its “regret” to hire him as “Jat” community did not fall within the list of OBCs categorised in the Central List.
Tokas contended that the advertisement was “ambiguous”. Besides, he said that the Delhi Government had in a notification — dated January 20, 1995 — stated that the Jaat community was included in the OBC category.
But the court held that the advertisement had specifically stated that admissions were open to only those candidates who belonged to OBC categories recognised by the Government of India.
01/03/07 Delhi Newsline