Aviation India: Careers

India's fast-growing airline industry is plagued by decaying infrastructure, frequent delays, and financial losses. Now add one more problem: a pilot shortage.
The industry's dozen or so carriers, many less than five years old, are scouring the globe in search of qualified captains and are struggling to train Indian pilots. "Ever since the hiring boom here, students are running wherever they can to get qualified," says John Ekl, chief pilot of SpiceJet, a two-year-old carrier patterned after Southwest Airlines (Charts, Fortune 500), the U.S. no-frills company where Ekl used to work.
Going abroad to find pilots is a relatively new phenomenon. When the scramble began two years ago, airlines would just poach each other's staff. Pilots would land their planes, taxi to the gate, and walk down the tarmac to begin a new job at a better-paying airline, leaving passengers stranded and airline managers in a panic. The practice continued until the beginning of this year, when major Indian carriers agreed to a no-poaching pact.
Experienced captains can make between $120,000 and $156,000 a year with overtime, five times what they took home ten years ago, when Indian pilots were among the worst paid in the world. And the demand isn't expected to slow anytime soon. Indian carriers have 425 aircraft on order and by 2020 will need an estimated 10,000 pilots, says Kapil Kaul, a consultant in New Delhi with the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. There are now about 3,000 pilots in India, 600 of them foreigners.
Several Indian airlines are sending promising cadets to training courses in the U.S. One of them, Kingfisher, has linked with flight schools in California and Arizona to offer a nine-month training course for $45,000. Those who graduate and pass the medical and written tests will be hired by Kingfisher and refunded about $12,400. The first batch of 70 will graduate in February.
Other carriers have similar programs. But most experts say another four or five years will pass before the large percentage of foreign pilots can be trimmed and Indian captains are able to take over. In the meantime, SpiceJet's Ekl tells his fellow expat pilots, "Enjoy it while it lasts."
30/10/07 Daniel Pepper/Fortune/CNNMoney.com

West Boynton: A muffled audio exchange, taped from a conversation with air traffic control, captures three pilots' desperate attempts to land their failing plane in the dark.
"We are having problems. We need to land as soon as possible," one man's voice cut in and out as he spoke Saturday night to air traffic control officials at Palm Beach International Airport.
They tried to guide the men in the single-engine plane to Lantana airport — just four miles away.
"I don't know if we can do that," the pilot's voice crackled over the radio. "We're in a panic situation here."
That was the last PBIA air traffic control heard from the Piper P-28.
Flight student Arjun Chhikara, 18, and his instructor Anders Selberg, 46, were killed instantly when their plane crashed on a green in the Quail Ridge Country Club off Golf Road. A third occupant, Chandrashekhar Godghate, 38, was rushed to Delray Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
Chhikara had flown several hundred hours since his first flight at the school in December, while Godghate was a new student. Both were from India.
"He decided to fly along to see the more experienced trainee at work," Vince Taddeo, a dispatcher at the nearby Kemper Aviation flight training school, said. "Hopefully, he'll be walking away alive."
Taddeo was also listening to the radio the night of the crash. He recalls hearing one of the men saying: "We're going down. We're going down. We're going for the road." He said from what he heard across the radio it sounded like the engine power went out.
"Something must have gone awry. All pilots know a golf course isn't a good place to land," he said.
The planes get checked every 100 hours of flight time, about once a month, Taddeo said. Records show that the Piper P-28 had 93 hours of flight time since its last check, he said.
31/10/07 Rachael Joyner /South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, US

New Delhi: Air India has overcome the legal hurdle to slash the number of its cabin crew on board as the apex court has dismissed a petition filed by Air India Cabin Crew Association challenging the national carrier's decision.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhan dismissed the petition saying that the association had been consulted before working out such an arrangement.
The Association had sought quashing of the Bombay High Court judgement that upheld the Centre's decision to reduce the number of crew members aboard Air India flights.
Senior counsel Arun Jaitley, appearing for the association, had submitted that the AI management had unilaterally sought to change the cabin crew complement in their aircraft thus "affecting the health of the petitioners' members, safety of passengers and the aircraft."
The operation of flights with reduced crew had resulted in interchangeability of job functions between the separate and distinct categories of cabin crew, the association had said.
According to the petition, the unilateral slashing of the number of the cabin crew on board all aircraft had resulted in elimination of posts in each type of aircraft, proportionate increase in the workload, reduction in monthly utilisation of the crew and number of flying hours per month besides reduction in compensatory flight related allowances.
29/10/07 PTI/Economic Times

A trainee co-piloting a single-engine plane that crashed west of Boynton Beach (Florida, US) Saturday night was a young student from India who came here with the goal of one day flying commercial airliners back home.
Instead, 18-year-old Arjun Chhikara was killed along with his instructor, 46-year-old Anders Selberg, when their Piper P-28 Archer crashed on a golf course in the Quail Ridge Country Club off Golf Road.
The lone survivor in the wreck, 38-year-old passenger Chandrashekhar Godghate, was taken to Delray Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
Chhikara's friends here were left to reflect on his sudden death Monday. One roommate, 18-year-old Jignesh Chitroda, said Chhikara and Godghate were from Bombay or Delhi. Like Chhikara, Chitroda had enrolled in flight school hoping to earn his certification and find work in the burgeoning Indian airline industry, he said.
Chitroda said he had lived with Chhikara and Godghate since he left Bombay for flight training in the U.S. on Oct. 9, but he added that he hadn't gotten to know them well. He shrugged at mention of the fatal wreck. These things happen, he said.
Chhikara and Chitroda were among a handful of young Indian pilot trainees who shared an apartment on 2nd Avenue North west of Lake Worth, he said.
Kemper Aviation apparently has made a cottage industry of training Indian flight students. Akshay Mohan, a U.S. citizen who came here from India, co-owns the flight school, and the company's Web site includes a separate section devoted to attracting Indian trainees.
Officials at Kemper Aviation refused to comment beyond the written statement released after the wreck.
Chitroda said many aspiring Indian pilots opt to train in the U.S. rather than India, where flight schools are few.
He said it's typical for Indian students to come here on visas, as he did, and spend about 10 months training before returning to India, where they can take an equivalency exam and apply for work at one of India's many airlines.
"There is a boom," he said.
29/10/07 Michael LaForgia/Palm Beach Post, United States

Boynton Beach, FL: A plane crash in a gated golf community in suburban Boynton Beach that killed two men and critically injured a third Saturday night left authorities scrambling Sunday to notify families across the globe.
The closest relatives for Anders Selberg, a 46-year-old flight instructor from Port St. Lucie who died, are in Sweden. The family of two trainees - 18-year-old Arjun Chhikara, who also died, and 38-year-old Chandrashekhar Godghate, who remains hospitalized - are in India.
National Transportation Safety Board officials from Washington assumed control of the wreckage of the single-engine Piper on Sunday afternoon. Though the plane's distress call came in to the Palm Beach International Airport as engine failure, the NTSB will make the official ruling on what caused the crash.
The plane smashed into one of the greens on the golf course, which is surrounded by single-family homes and condos.
The instructor and trainees were with Kemper Aviation, a flight school based at the Lantana airport. On its Web site, Kemper lists an office in India .
The two crash victims from India were not related and were only in town for the flight lessons, Barbera said. They stayed at an apartment in Lake Worth.
Selberg was a certified flight instructor, ground instructor and airline transport pilot, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
To further complicate an expansive web of locations connected to the crash, the plane is registered to Day Trippin Airlines of Olathe, Kan. Barbera said investigators did not know why.
The plane took off Saturday from the Lantana airport, flew to Opa-locka and was returning to Lantana when it sent out a distress call at 8:15 p.m. The crash site was less than 5 miles from the Lantana airport. The Piper flipped over on impact, said Barbera, the sheriff's spokeswoman.
She said investigators initially could not spot the wreckage from the sheriff's Eagle helicopter, but then heard the telltale beep of the plane's beacon, a device designed for emergencies.
29/10/07 Allyson Bird/Palm Beach Post, USA

Mumbai: With the airline industry expecting a growth rate of 25 percent rate per annum, analysts predict a 7,000-8,000 plus requirement for cabin crew (air hostesses and flight pursers) in the next three years. And the supply has been there as well. "Even in smaller towns, there are easily about 150 aspirants on any given day," says Narendra Kumar, director of a franchisee of the Avalon Aviation Academy.
The job criteria might sound simple. That is, looking good with a pleasing persona. But think of all those passengers who will be asking absurd questions and you know that it is not that simple. No wonder there are training institutes which focus on developing skills like attitude and self-control. Then there are other skills to be learnt like understanding safety norms, knowledge of first aid, dealing with emergencies situations and meeting dietary needs of passengers are some of the other topics included in the training modules.
The cost of training courses is between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh depending on the duration which starts from six months to one-year. A number of institutes also have tie-ups with banks that offer you the required amount.
As far as the salaries go, the starting pay would range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 35,000 a month in domestic airlines. International airlines would pay anywhere between Rs 65,000 to Rs 70,000. The second step is usually of a chief stewardess (or a senior air hostess) in a domestic where the numbers run up to Rs 75,000 per month. After a certain age (different for different air lines), air hostesses generally shift from flying to take up other duties like that of an assistant base in-charge or a base in-charge where she would deal with logistical issues relating to the flight.
28/10/07 Dipta Joshi/Business Standard

New Delhi: Indian air traffic controllers (ATCs) will get an opportunity to train in the US, thanks to initiatives launched by the two countries to ramp up their ties in the civil aviation sector.
The training will be conducted under the India-US Aviation Cooperation Programme (ACP) that will be overseen by the US-India Joint Aviation Steering Committee, whose first meeting was held in the Capital on Friday.
"The training is the first project of the ACP. It will begin in January and run through 2008, focusing on air traffic operations at the two busiest Indian airports of Delhi and Mumbai," James Filippatos of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), told reporters here Friday.
"The project will be completed in four phases, permitting Indian and American air traffic control officials to work together," added Filippatos, who is the FAA assistant administrator for international aviation.
He attended the first meeting of the steering committee Thursday, as also the ACP meeting Friday.
The ACP is a public-private partnership between the US Trade and Development Agency, the FAA, US aviation companies and the Indian government.
27/10/07 Indo-Asian News Service/Hindustan Times

The pilot of a small plane which overshot the runway, clipped a fence and landed in scrub near Omaka Airfield yesterday has been described as a top flying student.
The pilot and a fellow student, both from India, escaped with minor injuries after the 10.30am crash.
They were taken to Wairau Hospital where they were treated and discharged yesterday.
A St John Ambulance spokesman said the 22-year-old pilot suffered minor leg injuries and his 18-year-old passenger suffered minor head injuries.
The four-seater Cessna 172 came from Feilding and was registered to Air Manawatu. The wreckage of the plane was removed by this morning.
Air Manawatu chief executive Michael Bryant said the pilot was one of the airline's top students, with more than 100 hours of flying experience.
Mr Bryant flew to Omaka as soon as he heard about the crash and took the students home yesterday afternoon.
He said the students were from India. The pilot had been in the country for about seven months of a planned 10 month stay, while the younger man had only been in New Zealand for a month.
He said they were here specifically to do the course.
Mr Bryant could not comment on the cause of the crash but said Air Manawatu would "most certainly" be conducting its own investigation.
Two ambulances, and six fire appliances from Woodbourne, Renwick and Blenheim attended the scene where the plane crashed.
Sergeant John Butson of Blenheim police said the Cessna was landing in a southeasterly direction on the runway. It failed to come to a stop and clipped a fence between the airfield and the road.
The plane gathered height and crashed some 150m from the end of the runway, he said.
Wreckage of the plane was scattered around where it landed. The nose was pointing down and the tail was suspended above a fence on the edge of a bank overlooking the Taylor River.
Omaka Airfield's runway was closed for about 40 minutes after the crash.
25/10/07 The Marlborough Express/Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand

Pune: While many memorials built for soldiers lie ignored and forgotten, Kavita and her husband Capt Anil Gadgil, the parents of the martyred MiG 21 fighter pilot Abhijit Gadgil decided to honour many like him and announced the Jeet Aerospace Institute near Donje village last year. The institute was meant to introduce budding flyers and aviation enthusiasts to the thrill of flying.
Now a year later, the couple has moved a step closer towards realising their dream, after developing the country’s first mobile flight training simulator, which will be used to train the students.
“While some consciously strive to fly and serve the nation, aviation for many others is fantasy. Even though everyone may not seek entry into an aviation school, they would want to learn about the intricacies of a cockpit. The simulator will offer them basic cockpit familiarisation and flight orientation, thus ensuring the same thrill experienced during a real aircraft operation,” said Kavita.
The flight simulator was developed in Bangalore by a team of experts from RealiSim Ltd and Tata Motors had donated a truck chassis for mobile platform fabricated by ARCO engineers of Pune.
“It is essentially an indigenous simulator with its own supply of water, fuel and electricity. Measuring 8 ft by 8 ft in width and height, it is 20 ft long and consumes 10 KVA electricity,” said Capt Gadgil. The simulator comprises a two-pilot cockpit with a curved screen to facilitate visuals and a full flat panel CRT displays as found in a modern jet liner.
“This simulator is generic, which means that it has not been modelled on any one particular aircraft and the cockpit has been modelled on the cockpits that the modern aircraft possess,” said Capt Gadgil. “Knobs and dials are passé!” he said.
The Gadgils reiterated the simulator is also open for those pilots who are already undergoing formal training.
Touted to be just the first phase of the institute, the simulator will be formally inaugurated by the Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on November 2.
Essentially a ‘prototype,’ the institute will offer low-cost and low-risk flying experience, with the minimal training to all, irrespective of age and gender. Besides the simulator, the institute will have an aero-modelling workshop, interactive airport model, a reference library and guidance and counseling center. The sessions will be spread over a few months and will be taken on weekends.
26/10/07 Pune Newsline

Shelby, North Carolina: Johnathan Bailey learned to fly before he knew how to drive a car.
“I’ve been flying my whole life,” he said. “As long as I can remember.”
The 17-year-old Shelby High student grew up around planes — his father was in the Air Force and worked at the Shelby airport. Now, he wants to share his passion with his peers and hopefully attract more kids his age to the tarmac.
Bailey has spearheaded a class to teach basic aviation skills to county high schoolers. Local pilots have offered to donate their time to help teach and guest speakers, including Vietnam pilots, will also make appearances.
“Every kid that joins gets to fly,” he said.
“It’s kind of a select group, but I want to open it up to more people,” Bailey said.
Chris Davidson, the squadron commander for Shelby’s Civil Air Patrol, said the experience would change a young person’s life.
“Once you go up, you very rarely come back down,” he said. Davidson first flew in 1993 and said, “I still have my head stuck in the clouds.”
Much of Bailey’s life centers on airplanes. He’s a volunteer at the Carolinas Aviation Museum, has traveled with air shows all over the country and is a member of the Civil Air Patrol of Shelby.
He’s built relationships with many pilots who will volunteer their time to help teach.
Jim Zazas is one of those pilots. He met Bailey while flying World War II area aircraft. He currently flies commercially for U.S. Airways and for museums across the nation.
“We have to pass the torch, so to speak,” he said. “Aviation is the way of our future for transportation.”
25/10/07 Drew Brooks/Shelby Star, NC, US

Mumbai: Rising number of airlines has meant soaring demand for pilots. A look at this high-flying option.
If you are willing to let your ambition soar, the sky is the limit. And that is literally true for pilots. Among all aviation-related jobs, a pilot's job is considered the most important as they actually have to fly that machine in which hundreds of people are boarded.
Let us look at a few figures. Presently, all of India's current training institutes put together churn out anywhere between 400 to 500 students a year. Add to this, another 200 to 300 students who join the work force after training abroad. That is, a total of around 800 pilots is being added every year. The demand, on the other hand, is going to be for around 3,200 trained pilots by in the next four years from just the commercial sector when the 450 commercial aircraft are delivered.
The route to the cockpit starts with a Student Pilot License (SPL). This can be attained at the age of sixteen years only. The cost of such courses is almost Rs 1 lakh. Once you have your SPL, you can go for Private Pilot License (PPL) or Commercial Pilot License (CPL). But the former does not allow you to fly commercially and is generally taken up by those who have a passion for flying.
A CPL allows you to fly for airlines, corporate private planes or even cargo airlines. To obtain a CPL, 200 hours of flying is necessary. The cost is as high as Rs 11 to 12 lakh. Then, you also require to have knowledge of handling multi-engine aircraft which is another three weeks of training and comes with an extra price tag of Rs 2.5 lakh. Similar courses done abroad come for almost Rs 25 to 30 lakh.
As the training costs are really steep, many banks offer loans for them. Student education loans of Rs 10 to 20 lakh are available for pursuing pilot training courses in India and abroad. Interest rates charged are between 12 to 13 per cent. Banks approve such loans easily, if the chosen training school is one from their own list of approved flight training schools.
The salaries start from Rs 10,000-20,000 (stipend) till the pilot successfully undergoes the initial training of six months to one year to become eligible for sharing the cockpit with the flying team. Going forward in the career, there are two other levels -- first officer and commander. A first officer (junior and senior) can earn in the range of Rs 1.2 lakh to 1.8 lakh per month. The commander commands anywhere between Rs 2.5 to Rs 4 lakh a month.
As in any other field, your remuneration will rise with your years of experience. The best bait airlines use is to lure trained pilots by flashing huge salaries. That's one good reason for aspirants to reach for the skies.
24/10/07 Dipta Joshi/Business Standard

New Delhi: Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Academy (IGRUA) will soon tie up with a foreign institution to train pilots expeditiously to steer the burgeoning air traffic.
Uttar Pradesh-based IGRUA would enter into a contract with Canada-based firm - CAE to train pilots and the proposal is awaiting the nod of the Union Cabinet, Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters here.
Once approved, it would be a ten-year expertise contract with the CAE, which has promised to churn out 100 pilots per annum to begin with, and subsequently, the training capacity would be enhanced to 200 pilots every year in three years' time at the government-run flying school, he said.
The CAE would bring in full-flight simulators and flying training operations with them, he said. The IGRUA presently trains only forty pilots a year.
Chawla said a new flying school would be opened in Maharashtra and an on-demand online testing facility for aspiring pilots may also be introduced.
24/10/07 PTI/The Hindu

The GMR group, with three airports under its sway, is entering the fastest growing area of aviation training with an investment of Rs 450 crore.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), 63 per cent controlled by GMR, has entered into a joint venture with Brussels (Belgium)-based Sabena Flight Academy (SFA) to set up a modern aviation academy at Hyderabad.
The new company to impart training for pilots and cabin crew will be operational at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by January 2009.
The academy will also provide training for aircraft engineers, technicians, aviation consultants, airport operations staff and ramp services agents.
SFA’s associate partners— CFM, Sabena Technics and Flight Care—will also be involved in this project.
The academy will cater to the requirement of domestic and foreign airlines that are facing acute manpower shortages.
Involving an investment of more than 80 million Euros (Rs 450 crore) over the next three years, the academy will be able to provide accommodation for more than 200 trainees per year, six full flight simulators, cabin trainers and engineering tools.
23/10/07 Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

New Delhi: Life at 30,000 feet isn’t exactly a breeze.
Complaints of passengers misbehaving with air hostesses have been rising — the problem serving as a reminder of the unpleasant realities of the high-flying career.
In the past two weeks, authorities in Delhi have received four complaints from female cabin crew about such misbehaviour, an unusually high number in such a short time.
Officials said many incidents go unreported, suggesting that there would be more instances.
“ Most girls settle it with an apology. They don’t report since they have to go to the police station frequently and find it embarrassing,” an official said.
One complaint filed in Delhi was from an Air India hostess, who recounted her ordeal after a passenger raised an argument over alcohol.
“Many air hostesses are very young, sometimes just out of school. They don’t have the confidence to be firm. The profile of passengers is also changing with prices of tickets coming down,” the official said.
Airline officials, however, said first-time fliers rarely cross the line.
“They are too nervous. It is the boys in groups who tend to tease. The late-night flights have some passengers under the influence of drinks,” an official of a low-cost airline said.
“They don’t realise that most girls (air hostesses) are from middle-class families and from small towns and aren’t used their idea of vulgar amusement.”
Seventy per cent of those admitted to the Frankfinn Institute, one of the many institutes that have sprouted to cash in on the surging demand for crew, are girls, attracted from the smaller towns by the promise of a soaring career.
22/10/07 The Telegraph

Russia's airline industry is growing rapidly, with rising passenger numbers and new aircraft on the way. But the business is facing a serious problem - there are not enough pilots around to fly the new planes.
National airline Aeroflot says that of Russia’s 10,000 pilots, a thousand a year retire, or go overseas to work. And Russia's state-run training system, turning out just 120 a year, cannot replace them. Meantime, Russia is unique in not allowing its airlines to hire foreign crews for its planes, making the shortage even worse.
Now Aeroflot plans to set up its own training school to turn out a fresh generation of pilots, trained to fly its new Boeing and Airbus airliners.
One way to finance the renewed pilot training system is to make students pay for their own training in future.
“Certainly we look for ways for the banks or some other financial institution to help the students, or maybe the company could pay for a certain number of students that it would be interested to have,” commented Lev Koshlyakov, Deputy Director General, Aeroflot.
22/10/07 RussiaToday, Russia

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh government's efforts to woo investments might soon allow it to accommodate world's first Aviation University offering state-of-the-art training in 16 disciplines - including navigation, pilots and cabin crew - under one roof.
The project, conceptualised by one of the country's leading aviation institutes, will be unveiled at the three-day Global Investors Summit scheduled at Indore from October 26, state Civil Aviation Department sources told PTI here.
In three years span, the University will generate 17,000 jobs besides facilitating start of ancillary units of mechanical, electricals and construction works, said aviation experts, who discussed the project with the state officials.
At over 25 per cent growth every year, India has one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation sectors but the industry faces severe shortage of trained staff, they said.
With tremendous spurt in aviation activities, a time will soon come when there will be a miss-match between equipment and manpower, which is noticed even now, the experts said.
21/10/07 Press Trust of India

We’ve all heard of pilot shortage. This has led to many youngsters taking to flying like never before. But there are predictions that this shortage in commercial aviation, sometimes termed critical, is likely to be shortlived. Sounds pessimistic? But then, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The present shortage has made these professionals among the highest-paid in any sector. And with the industry growing by leaps and bounds and airlines scrambling to buy new planes, the world is at their feet. As of now.
But this shortage won’t last, predicts Capt R S Shekhawat, technical and development pilot, Spicejet.
How did he come to this conclusion at a time when pilot shortage has been pegged by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) at about 2,000 by the end of 2010 and some 20,000 by 2020? ‘‘This includes those needed for cargo airlines and general aviation,’’ says Kapil Kaul, CEO, Indian subcontinent and Middle East, CAPA. Also, by 2012, over 400 planes will be delivered, says Kaul, and these would need pilots. But with airlines making losses, some have rescheduled their plane delivery plans and these figures could change.
For Shekhawat, the arithmetic is simple. The number of those taking Class II medicals (for student/private pilot’s licence) was around 6,000 in the last 18 months, he says. ‘‘This will only increase. And the aviation growth won’t be enough to absorb and fulfil the dreams of all of them.’’ Some 50% of Class II medical candidates get through Class I medicals (for a Commercial Pilot’s Licence). Of these, only those who pass the DGCA written exam will finally get their CPLs.
However, Shekhawat says, a new DGCA rule last year put paid to the plans of many students. It made it mandatory for students to fly 50 hours before they could even take these written exams. Enrolling in a flying school just to get 50 hours was not easy. Many schools had few planes and instructors. Consequently, many went abroad where they got their mandatory 200 flying hours for CPL. Many of them will now be coming back.
And with over 400 planes - let’s make it 500 to be on the safe side - expected to be delivered only over the next five years, where will these students find jobs? Most airlines have five sets of crew, i.e. 10 pilots per plane. That means about 5,000 pilots will be needed. Of these, 2,500 will be co-pilot vacancies. They will also take about three years to graduate to the advanced Airline Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL). Only after they become commanders, can the remaining 2,500 pilots find jobs. But that’s a long haul.
Though DGCA confirmed these figures, it was more optimistic. Some 5,000 passed Class II medicals last year, this year, it was 7,000. Of these, 3,227 and 2,305 respectively passed Class I medicals. Out of them, only 314 and 600 passed the CPL written exams, says a senior official. ‘‘Even if 800 pass CPLs this year, with a requirement of 5,000 pilots over five years, the shortage will there for about six years. Plus, pilots will retire and some will be found medically unfit.’’ But it still doesn’t address the issue of those who will come back from schools abroad, says Shekhawat.
Wg Cdr S K Buti, who runs a ground school for pilots in Delhi, agrees with Shekhawat. ‘‘The shortage won’t last. I have been warning students that the times of walk-in interviews are over. Airlines are getting stringent about training standards of these students during interviews.’’
Adds Mark Martin, senior advisor, KPMG,‘‘Pilots must get as much flying on multi-engine planes as possible as airlines are increasingly placing minimum criteria for total flying hours. Airlines in the US, for example, take pilots with a minimum of 1,000 flying hours.’’
In case these predictions do come true, here are some suggestions.
Government should encourage general aviation for business, tourism, etc. Why look only at commercial flying? There’s offshore helicopter operations, business, corporate and charter planes.
Do CPL training after graduation, instead of after Class XII as at present.
However, all is not gloom and doom this time. Hemant Shah, MD, Winnipeg Aviation, Toronto, says, ‘‘India could become a global outsourcing centre for pilots. There is shortage in Canada, North America, China and Middle East and many Indian pilots are joining airlines there.’’
21/10/07 Shobha John/Times of India

Cathay Pacific has tried to turn its global training headquarters near Hong Kong International Airport into a temple of team spirit. Employees can wander into classes for yoga and belly-dancing and get a drink at Dhakota's, the company bar. "It's like a big playground," says Steve Lawrence, one of Cathay's training and development managers. The rooftop patio hosts just about every hokey team-building exercise ever invented. Trainees regularly participate in 100-person lap sits, in which each person sits on the next one's knees, forming a circle while trying mightily to stay balanced.
These exercises can do only so much. "Team-building events just create a shared experience for people," says Lawrence, "nothing more, nothing less." So managers help employees make a clear connection between the exercises and their daily responsibilities. At a recent session in which the trainees played the game red/black (teams score higher by coordinating their strategies), a supervisor from Indonesia linked the exercise to dealing with lost luggage without passing blame.
The cabin crew, ground staff, gate agents and customer-service reps for any given flight are always different, so "every time you a have a flight that takes off, you have a new group thrown together for a project," says Jeremy Perks, a director in Beijing for IWNC, a corporate-team-building firm that has worked with Cathay. When those teams break down, Cathay is vulnerable to the same problems facing every other airline. For example, in June a mechanical problem delayed a Cathay flight in San Francisco, forcing 400 passengers to sit on the runway for seven hours and hitting the airline with a rare round of negative publicity.
Cathay's team-building isn't just for the rank and file. At a recent event in Bangkok, top managers, including former CEO Philip Chen, were sent into local Thai grocery stores with 500 baht and the task of planning and cooking new economy- and business-class meals.
The next team challenge? Cathay acquired the Chinese domestic airline Dragonair last year, but integrating its new partner could be tricky. "Chinese carriers do not have a good reputation for customer service," says Richard Aboulafia, an airline analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. Tyler says he wants "to make sure Dragonair staff feel they belong--to make sure nobody was having lunch alone." Perhaps it's time to bring back Morning Boogie.
18/10/07 Krista Mahr/TIME

A chronic shortage of airline pilots is forcing the aviation industry into a crisis “bigger than the airline strike of 1989 and bigger than the Ansett collapse”.
That is the dire warning Qantas Group flight operations general manager and chief pilot Chris Manning gave to the Regional Aviation Association of Australia Convention at the Hyatt Coolum yesterday.
Qantas has unashamedly “poached” staff from regional airlines as it battles to meet heightened demands because of the low-cost airline boom.
Captain Manning said the crisis was “the worst I’ve seen in my 37 years”.
It was feared the pilot shortage could collapse regional airlines with Regional Express already warning its cancellation rate was “running at four times historical levels”.
REx chief of staff Jim Davis said the situation was only going to get worse, with industry feedback suggesting the “net additional requirement for pilots will be of the order of 1800 over the next two years”.
Fewer than 400 new airline transport pilot licences are issued in Australia every year.
Qantas alone will need to recruit about 300 pilots in the next two years and the other major airlines, Virgin, Jetstar, Cathay Pacific, are in the same boat.
“More than 20% of our pilots have been poached by Virgin, Jetstar and Qantas in the last three months and I am sure the situation is similar or worse in the other regional carriers,” Mr Davis said.
18/10/07 Sunshine Coast Daily, Australia

Mumbai: Jet Airways has gone the cost effective way to train its pilots through two new in-house flight simulators. According to the CEO of Jet Airways, Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, the company would be saving $10 million annually on pilot training, which the company was incurring by sending them abroad.
This takes the total number of simulators with Jet to four with a total investment being $60 million ($15 million each).
�We have a total of 850 pilots and sending them abroad for training on simulators was costing us $1,000 per hour, around $500 per hour on training and then on their boarding and lodging,� said Mr Schauer.
Jet got its first two Boeing 737 simulators in the year 2000 and 2005 respectively, the new ones are for Boeing 777 and Airbus 330-340, which the company received last month.
17/10/07 Business Line/Moneycontrol.com

Mumbai: India’s struggling local airlines plan to share details of salaries across levels and functions in an effort to moderate salaries. Partly driven by a boom in the aviation business in the country—and the consequent shortage of manpower—salaries, especially of pilots and engineers, have tripled in the past three years.
Rising wage costs and intense competition have wreaked havoc with the profitability of all airlines; Indian carriers ended 2006-07 with losses of around Rs2,000 crore. A captain (a senior pilot) earns anything between Rs4.5 lakh and Rs5 lakh a month as compared with Rs1.5-2 lakh a month three years ago.
The information helps companies rationalize their wage costs and benchmark themselves, in terms of salaries, with the competition.
“Collation of remuneration data will not do any harm to employees. On the contrary, it will help the aviation industry to keep rising costs under control,” said Ajay Singh, director, SpiceJet, a low-fare carrier based in New Delhi.
The airlines are currently collating details of salaries of pilots, cabin crew, flight dispatchers and engineers; this information will go into a database that is being created under the aegis of the Federation of Indian Airlines, or FIA, an industry association.
The move was not targeted at reducing salaries, said a private airline executive who did not wish either his name or that of his airline to be identified. Salaries and jobs are related to the “demand-supply situation,” he added. “Airlines are not sharing remuneration details of a particular employee. We are sharing the salaries paid to various cadres to assess (the) industry average,” he said. The executive also said that the initiative to share data on salaries had got the HR heads of various local carriers talking to each other, something that was inconceivable in the past.
14/10/07 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

Vijay Bahadur Singh’s lifestyle has changed dramatically since he quit Indian Air Force (IAF) two years ago and joined Jet Airways, the country’s biggest private airline.
The 36-year-old former fighter pilot now earns over Rs250,000 a month — six times his IAF salary. “I am happy with myself”, says Singh who can now afford all the luxuries of life: an air-conditioned sprawling 12th floor apartment in Delhi, an expensive car, plasma TV, club membership and family holidays abroad.
Singh is no exception. Officers and men are deserting the Indian armed forces in droves.
The 1.12 million strong Indian Army is short of 11,238 officers against a sanctioned strength of 46,615 officers: a staggering 25 per cent shortage.
Since 2003, as many as 2,664 army officers have sought early retirement. Among them 1,496 were allowed to go. In the IAF, only 50 per cent of officers who put in their papers were discharged. But in the navy, 637 out of 807 who sought voluntary retirement were permitted to leave for greener pastures.
Despite several directives, the government has done nothing to bring many services on a par in salaries, allowances and perks.
One example is that an air force fighter pilot earns about one-third of what an Indian Airlines pilot is paid.
IAF pilots are in great demand as private airlines mushroom in the country. And navy officers have equally attractive options to choose from.
Former army chief, General Shankar Roychowdhury, says that the government’s step-motherly treatment is driving military officers into the arms of the private sector.
15/10/07 S.N.M. Abdi (KOLKATA CALLING)/Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates

DGCA has published the schedule for Pilots Technical/General examination October 2007 session schedule. The Examination is scheduled on 16th, 17th & 18th October, 2007.
The list of admitted candidates is available here and here.
The Schedule can be downloaded from here or here.
The detailed instructions are available here and here.
The details of rejected candidates can be accessed here.

New Delhi: What do fashion shows and airlines have in common? If you ask Winston D’souza, the answer is obvious: the ramp, of course.
D’souza, a marketing executive of Gladrags Career Academy, said the Mumbai training centre has recently certified two batches of 20 students, training them in both modelling and how to be an air hostess.
“Frankly, when you are on the aircraft, people are looking up to the hostess on the ramp,” said D’souza. “The person is representing the brand on the ramp… They are brand ambassadors.”
It’s not just a hunch—airlines and beauty do go hand in hand, especially when it comes to recruitment.In Gladrags’ programmes for models and air hostesses are run together.
Gladrags’ training—Rs25,000 for one month—focuses on both cabin crew training and ramp modelling, covering topics such as effective body language, English language, fitness, hygiene and stress management. Trainees are also given a complete makeover, headed by Maureen Wadia, a former model and Air India hostess. The trainees also receive direct placement with GoAir, the airline founded by Wadia’s younger son.
With domestic airlines such as GoAir growing, human resources departments are getting creative in recruitment tactics.
Flying Cats' (an institute headquartered in Chandigarh) course is one year long and includes classes on in-flight training, first aid and personality development. It frequently ropes in actors and models to reflect what is possible for students; its national launch on a chartered Kingfisher flight from Delhi to Chandigarh and back had actress Kareena Kapoor as chief guest, while model and Femina Miss Universe winner Neha Dhupia inaugurated a centre in Dehradun.
In May, the Kingfisher Training Academy launched a six-month programme in Mumbai.
Schreyas Nair, deputy general manager of the Kingfisher Training Academy, said that while there is no guarantee its trainees would land a job with Kingfisher Airlines, the expectation is that most will. The course costs a cool Rs1 lakh. “Kingfisher airline girls bring a lot more glamour,” Nair said.
Good looks are one thing, but brains are essential, say some in the industry who advocate the introduction of standards to ensure quality. The Air Hostess Academy says it interviewed 20,000 candidates this year and accepted only half.
15/10/07 Aliyah Shahid/Livemint

Chennai: As many as 100 tribal girls, hailing from remote areas across Tamil Nadu, are undergoing one-year air hostess training programme at a private academy here under a sponsorship scheme launched by the State Adi Dravidar Welfare Department.
Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister A. Tamilarasi told PTI that the scheme was basically to bring out the girls from "cocoons" and help them gain confidence to compete with others at all levels. "We'll also ensure that they get 100 per cent placement," she added.
The Tamil Nadu government, which has allocated Rs10 million for the scheme, is also providing free accommodation and uniforms to the girls, besides giving them a stipend of Rs200 per month.
The government has also decided to provide cabin crew training to 100 Adi Dravidar boys from next year. An allocation of Rs20 million would be made for the scheme every year, Tamilarasi said.
Air Hostess Academy Pvt Ltd state branch manager K.C.S. Kannan said the academy had also signed agreements with Karnataka and Maharashtra governments to train students from the backward communities.
15/10/07 Ajitha Karthikeyan/PTI/Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates

With the aviation sector booming and pilot shortage pegged at around 2,000 by 2010, flying is an obvious career option for many, passion be damned. However, in some good schools, dropouts from bad ones are as high as 25-30%. With many schools out to make a fast buck, gullible youngsters are being taken for a ride. A bumpy one, in fact.
Here's lesson No.1 for wannabe pilots: zero in on the right flying school to save time and money. There are 41 listed on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) website. Some such as Yash Air, Carver Aviation Academy, Baramati, and Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy (RGAA), Hyderabad, routinely get students from other schools.
So what makes for a good flying school? Safety record tops the list. It's generally a good indicator of a school's overall efficiency. Other tips from experts :

>Proactive approach
‘‘The thumb rule for a good school,'' says Marc Carvalho of Carver Academy, ‘‘is to get one hour of flying for every day spent at the school.''
>Plane-student ratio
The global average is 1:8. In India, most schools have 1:25. A good one, say experts, should have 10 students per plane.
>Instructor-student ratio
Ideally, it should be 1:5. In fact, Carvalho says a student needs an instructor only 30% of the time. ‘‘Out of the 200 hours needed, 100 should be solo flying. A decent student will need about 130 hours here. So only some 70 hours of dual command (under instructor) is needed.''
>Quality of instructors
‘‘Planes without instructors,'' says Yashraj Tongia of Yash Air, ‘‘are just metal bodies. In order to get and retain quality instructors, we've funded the flying of 15 cadets who'll be taken on as instructors.''
But the fact is most instructors aren't there for the love of teaching. They prefer the greener pastures of airlines, where a fresh pilot could start with Rs 1.5 lakh. Schools are trying to match this.
>Location
Having good weather conditions is important. ‘‘Baramati,'' says Carvalho, '' That's important for a student. The more he flies, the quicker he finishes. Time is money, after all, in this industry. Plus, if the school isn't located near a big airport, it's an advantage — there's more airspace to fly in.
14/10/07 Shobha John/Times of India

Of the 22 state flying clubs in the country today, 11 are virtually defunct and the rest are slowly getting there. And the reasons vary: Post 9/11 security fears, years of mismanagement and neglect and the increase in air traffic have all contributed to the steady decline of most of these clubs.
At the Delhi Flying Club, pilot training had to be suspended because of security concerns: The planes' route goes over the PM's residence. The Guwahati Flying Club has not been operational since the 1980s for want of a chief flying instructor (CFI) while the Nagpur Flying Club shut down after its CFI retired in the late 1980s.The Bombay Flying Club has other problems: The runway gets flooded during the monsoons. The increase in air traffic from neighbouring Santa Cruz airport in the last two years has brought pilot training at the club to a grinding halt.
Meanwhile, the aspirants have no option but to wait. The Bombay Club has a waiting list of 30 candidates — it takes five in every batch — who cannot be accommodated because of lack of infrastructure. It has only two airworthy planes, which will increase to four by year-end, and has no chief flying instructor.
However, the growing demand for trained pilots has finally spurred the Aero Club of India, the apex body of all flying clubs, into action. “The club has procured 12 Cessna aircrafts, which will be distributed among the 11 operational flying clubs in the country,” says R C Kanda, secretary of the ACI.
But there are no plans yet to make the nonfunctional ones operational.
Meanwhile, it's party time for private schools, which have come up to fill the gap left by flying clubs. Even their high costs are not a deterrent for wannabe pilots. “ ...students don't mind paying because they can get a commercial pilot's licence in almost half the time,” says Ragini, whose son is undergoing training at a private flying school.
14/10/07 Amrita Singh/Times of India

The new Civil Aviation Policy doesn't have anything specific on flying schools. ‘‘There are no plans to revive defunct schools as it depends on the promoter,'' says Ashok Chawla, secretary, civil aviation. ‘‘But we're actively pushing for places where new flying schools can be started and by people who're genuinely interested in it as a professional venture, rather than as a hobby, as it was earlier.''
Meanwhile, the US, Canada, Australia and Europe are far ahead of us.
Indian flying schools, says Mark D Martin, senior advisor, KPMG, need to break away from the age-old flying club model. ‘‘They need to raise their bar of training, think globally and adapt to international standards, instead of just being centres for logging flying hours.'' And they could, if they follow these guidelines:

Upgrade infrastructure
Most flying schools have Cessna 152s, which hardly compare with airline jets. ‘‘Schools should invest in advanced training planes with semi-glass cockpits, retractable landing gear, weather radars and which are capable of flying over 7,500 ft with speeds between 120-160 knots,'' says Martin. Cessnas fly at 70-100 knots.

World-class instructors
‘‘In India, it's easier to get planes than good instructors,'' says Kapil Kaul, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. And how many have instructors who're genuine educationists? Some don't even allow the student to fly and log in the hours themselves, say insiders.

Cockpit Resource Management (CRM)
It's a term that defines how the men in the cockpit should behave: The commander and co-pilot are a team, so ego issues should be kept at bay. Though basic functioning between the two is laid down in India, softer interpersonal issues too should be dealt with.

Get established players
Why can't Boeing, Airbus or reputed flying schools abroad become stakeholders in schools here? IGRUA, for instance, is already in the process of getting a foreign management partner running flying academies, says director S C Malhan.
Some states such as Uttar Pradesh have come out with a policy where flying schools can be started wherever there are airstrips.

Aviation universities
This is an idea whose time has come. Most big universities in the US have their own flying schools, says Martin. ‘‘Many,'' says Capt Jack Ekl, chief pilot, Spicejet, who was in South West Airlines for around 22 years, ‘‘are big airports in themselves, complete with runways and 30-40 planes.

Marry theory with flying
At present, the two are taught separately by different establishments. ‘‘It's imperative to have theoretical lessons alongside practical flying for a holistic education. This should be made mandatory,'' says Martin.
14/10/07 Shobha John/Times of india

New Delhi: Low cost airline Jetlite may soon roll out new salary package for its pilots and cabin crew under a different set of terms and conditions. According to sources, the pilots and the cabin crew, who were earlier on the direct payrolls of Air Sahara, will now be offered contract-based employment.
The pilots and the cabin crew, however, fear that the new structure could be worse, leading to high-scale attrition. It is only a few days back that Jetlite has re-signed the technicians of the erstwhile Air Sahara on new terms and conditions.
“We felt that the salaries were not at par, so we decided to offer new packages. Besides better salary structure, it included cover for health insurance which was not provided earlier,” Mr. Gary Kingshott, CEO, Jetlite told SundayET.
Mr Kingshott dispelled any fears about contracts, stating that they’ll continue to review the term and conditions all across the board. However, there is still a feeling of uncertainty among the pilot and the cabin crew community of Jetlite.
After the merger of Air Sahara and Jet Airways, the pilots, engineers, technicians and cabin-crew were absorbed as continued employee and were employed under the same terms and conditions as of Air Sahara. Those who were in the cargo, marketing and ground handling department along with the legal team continued for three months after which a selective few were retained.
The pilots of Jetlite feel that a similar story could be in the offing.
14/10/07 Dheeraj Tiwari/Economic Times

The shortage of pilots across Australia has become so acute some airlines are being forced to scour the former Eastern Bloc for recruits, while others are being forced to reduce the number of routes they fly.
With the shortage being blamed on the growth of airlines in Australia and Asia, some aviation businesses have closed.
After blaming Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Blue for "raiding" regional airlines, flying schools and aviation businesses, the country's second-largest regional airline, Rex, became so desperate it sent its chief pilot to Ukraine in July to look for recruits.
"We did not have a lot of luck. We did have a problem with language," said the airline's chief of staff, Jim Davis, noting the airline would look for pilots in English-speaking countries.
Mr Davis said Rex had lost 20 per cent of its pilots in the past three months to larger airlines, compared to the 18 per cent that left last financial year. Rex says its pilot shortage had lifted its cancellation rates to four times historic levels and it will have to stop flying on some routes if the problem continues.
He predicted 1800 airline pilots would be needed in the next two years to keep up with Australia's airline industry. On average, only 380 airline pilot licences are granted each year.
Qantas estimates it will need 300 pilots in the next two years. Jetstar says it will need 200. Virgin Blue, which has 561, says it will "need several hundred" more over the next five years.
13/10/07 Scott Rochfort/The Age, Australia

Pune: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Air Hostess Academy (AHA) have tied up for a one-month internship programme to impart to students on-the-job training and exposure to airport ground staff work at the Pune airport.
This was announced at a press conference held on Thursday. Pune Airport director Captain Deepak Shastri said, “The students will be able to observe and participate in various functions right from airport entry point, baggage screening, check-in to passenger boarding. But at no point will they be directly accountable for the job as they will be under continuous supervision by the senior airport staff.”
The AAI will charge AHA Rs 50,000 for a batch of 30 students. AHA assistant general manager Bela Goyal said, “We will be the first institute of its kind to join hands with the Pune Airport authorities for this programme.” She added that the students would be trained and equipped with the skills needed to take on the work at the airport before the internship.
11/10/07 Expressindia.com

The rapidly expanding airline industry in India is prompting a Winnipeg business to explore expanding into South Asia.
Winnipeg Aviation already trains some pilots from India at its school in St. Andrews, Man., about 15 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Aviation president Dan Reeves is now working out the logistics of opening a pilot-training school in India.
"They just can't handle the massive numbers of young folks that want to get into the aviation industry over in India," he said.
"It would be like a teacup in the ocean, but at this point, we think that it's worth looking at anyways."
Because of a lack of facilities in India, it can take a flight student as long as three years to become a pilot in the country, compared with about eight months in Canada, Reeves said.
"One of the things that the airlines did over there was they went to the flying schools and they raided all the flight instructors and the mechanics, so they basically left the flight schools without any instructors," said Reeves.
Winnipeg Aviation estimates the total costs for its professional pilot training program at about $40,000, plus living expenses and travel costs for international students.
10/11/07 CBC Manitoba, Canada