Aviation India: Careers

Chennai: It has been five months since Deepak had applied to various airline offices for a six-month internship programme, but he is yet to hear from any airline yet. On-the-job training is mandatory during the last leg of his three-year Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) course. There are 60 students in his batch and except for three of them who managed to get interships in Bangalore, Calicut and Thiruvananthapuram, the rest continue to wait.
One of the reasons AME students are finding it difficult to get internships is that the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) do not want students attending to aircraft in high security zones. In other words, heightened security seems to be affecting the future prospects of AME students. And this, although airlines are facing a shortage of maintenance engineers.
Until last year, private airlines such as Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, Blue Dart and others used to enroll AME students as non-paid staff. It was a win-win situation for both airlines and students. The practice, however, came to an end after AAI and BCAS raised security concerns.
"It seems you need strong recommendation to get a slot in an airline," said Deepak. Air India, for instance, received several applications this year, too. Every year it would take eight students for on-the-job training in Chennai. But none were taken this year.
"BCAS declines to provide passes to students at major airports," said an Air India official, adding, "We insist that students should pass DGCA's examination papers one, two and three on civil aviation requirements, general aviation and aircraft engines before enrolling themselves for training at different airports. More than 1,500 applications from students who have cleared DGCA's tests are pending before our Mumbai office. Recruitments have not taken place during the past two years. So, we are planning to suggest to headquarters that students can be enrolled for on-the-job training after clearing an entrance examination."
29/05/09 V Ayyappan/Times of India

Kolkata: Air hostess training institute Frankfinn said it will invest Rs 400 crore in the next three years to increase its number of centres to 200 across the country and abroad.
"At least 40 new centres, both in India and abroad, would come up during the current financial year increasing the institute's present strength," Frankfinn Group Chairman K S Kohli told reporters here today.
At present, Frankfinn has around 115 centres across the country.
About 15 new centres would come up in Kolkata in three years in addition to the present three, he said.
The Rs 700 crore turnover company trains from 3,500 to 4,300 students every year with 60 per cent placement, Kohli said.
"Altogether 115 Frankfinn students are placed as cabin crew through campus interviews in a span of just 16 days in February-March this year," Kohli said adding that "93 of them are placed with international airlines like Malaysia Airlines, Emirates, Oman Air and Atlasjet of Turkey".
29/05/09 PTI/Economic Times

Mumbai: These could be turbulent times for the Indian aviation industry but that has not stopped SpiceJet from hiring people.
The New Delhi-based low-cost carrier plans to recruit 400-500 people this fiscal.
“This is to backfill attrition and support growth. In the last three months, several senior positions have been filled that include Ms Shilpa Bhatia, Vice-President, Sales Strategy and Corporate; Mr Anish Srikrishna, Senior Vice-President and Head of Marketing, and Ms Sarabjeet Kaur, who joined us as Head of Customer Service,” Mr Sanjay Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer, SpiceJet, told Business Line in an email response.
The airline already has some 2,500 employees.
The 500 new recruitments will include 40 pilots and 60 cabin crew besides those in security, reservations/ticketing and customer care.
Asked if SpiceJet would consider pay cuts in the backdrop of the recession, Mr Aggarwal said, “We pay our team-members competitive wages based on their background and experience and expect them to participate in the long-term success of SpiceJet.
Hence, our intent is not to take advantage of the economic climate.” Last month, he had said the company evaluated two plans.
One, to launch international services when it gets the go-ahead in May 2010, and the other to tap the potential in tier-II and tier-III cities. He had then indicated that it would take three months to gauge the situation.
27/05/09 BusinessLine

New Delhi: Captain Gopinath-promoted air cargo venture, which launched its services on Wednesday under brand name Deccan 360, said it would hire about 5,000 persons in next 3-4 years.
"Our company will hire around 5,000 people in the next 3-4 years, directly or indirectly. We have started the hiring process," Deccan Cargo and Express Logistics Pvt Ltd CMD G R Gopinath said.
Deccan 360 started cargo services to Hong Kong from Delhi. In the first phase, the company plans to appoint 100 franchisees in next three months and each franchisee will hire 10 people, Gopinath, the pioneer of low-cost air carrier format in the country, said.
Gopinath had founded budget carrier Air Deccan but later sold it to Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines.
27/05/09 PTI/Economic Times

Monday: Bird Group, a diversified group in the travel and IT arena, has inaugurated its first training centre in Mumbai for specialised aviation and hospitality courses.The courses have been conceptualised with a view to provide in-depth understanding and technical skills in the fields of aviation, travel and tourism, IT and hospitality management involving soft skill training. The other important courses are IATA Consultant and Foundation Course, Airport Handling and IATA Cargo Courses, Computerised Reservation System, Automated Ticketing and GDS Fares and Ticketing and Tally Financial Accounting Programme. Aviation Law and Dangerous Goods Regulation are the courses in demand amongst professionals.
After having trained nearly 20,000 travel and IT professionals across India, these programmes and activities are aimed at providing not only technical education but also for promoting intercultural interaction, as per the company.
The Bird Academy has a long-standing relationship with the likes of Miranda House (Delhi University), YMCA and UPES (University of Petroleum and Energy Services) for offering training.
27/05/09 EFY Times.com

The government in its 100-day agenda may not make way for foreign airlines to buy stake in domestic carriers. But the National Aviation Policy and the controversial ground handling policy are on the block. The altered policy could lead to 15,000 people losing their jobs, and also has security implications.
Here is a verbatim transcript of Mehak Kasbekar’s comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.
The Civil Aviation Ministry is gearing up for a flurry of activity and the first 100 days could well be chock-a-bloc with developments.
For starters, the government is expected to clear the National Aviation Policy, which has been pending with the Group of Ministers since January 2008. In a note to the cabinet secretary, the Civil Aviation Ministry is learnt to have recommended finalising the policy.
Second, the amendments to the controversial ground handling policy are also expected to come through, since the UPA Government's six-month extension for the same ends on June 30. The altered policy could lead to 15,000 people losing their jobs, and also has security implications.
The government is also likely to infuse close to Rs 4,000 crores worth of soft loans and equity into Air India's holding company NACIL. This is to help the airline offset losses, which are seen doubling past Rs 4,000 crores this financial year.
However, the domestic aviation sector may have to wait longer than expected for the government to relax the FDI rules governing the sector. The 100-day agenda makes no mention of foreign airlines buying a stake in domestic carriers. This proposal, experts say, is of immense importance to the sector that has faced a turbulent 2008, and is expected to post losses of over Rs 10,000 crore in FY10.
27/05/09 CNBC-TV18/Moneycontrol.com

Kochi: Kerala Fisheries and Registrations Minister S. Sarma said that the aviation academy started by the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) would begin functioning from June.
Kerala Fisheries and Registrations Minister said that the construction of the building and other infrastructure in the land allotted for the academy at Athani was progressing fast. Other related issues, including the syllabus to be followed, were being finalised, he said.
The minister said no labourer in the ground handling section would lose his job when the new agency took charge of the operation in a couple of months.
26/05/09 Kerala Online

A flight instructor’s failure to maintain control of the aircraft during a simulated engine failure contributed to the death of both of him and a student pilot during a March 2008 plane crash in Rome, the National Transportation Safety Board has reported.
Lokesh Venkat, 23, of India, was the student pilot flying the plane, and Kwang Yi, 34, of a Duluth address, was the instructor, when the plane crashed March 21, 2008, at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport in Armuchee.
Yi had a lack of total experience as a multi-engine flight instructor, according to the report. He had received his certificated flight instructor rating about three weeks prior to the crash.
The flight school reported that Yi had accumulated approximately 827 total hours of flight experience, including 111 hours in multi-engine airplanes, all in the same make and model as the twin-engine Beech­craft BE-76 that crashed.
Venkat was receiving instruction toward a multi-engine airplane rating. According to the NTSB report, the training syllabus for the flight included introduction to engine failures on takeoff and initial climb.
The four-seat Beechcraft crashed on the southern end of the airport just west of Lake Geneva off Godfrey Road.
All major parts of the airplane were accounted for at the accident site.
Yi was flying for Aviation Atlanta Inc., which held the registration for the plane, when it crashed. The company declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by the Rome News-Tribune.
26/05/09 Kaitlin Beard/Rome News Tribune, USA

Mumbai: The Air India is believed to be toying with the idea of hiring some of the laid-off Jet employees, as it would save time and cost on training.
“Air India has plans to hire cabin-crew. However, instead of recruiting freshers and then spending time and money on training them, we are mulling recruiting some of those laid-off by the Jet,” a source closely connected to the development told PTI here.
The Air India management is of the view that this move would help make considerable savings in both time and costs, besides fast-forwarding the recruitment process, the source said.
He, however, declined to reveal the number of personnel the national air carrier plans to take on board.
Jet Airways, plagued by mounting losses, recently laid off some of its cabin crew.
The industry practice is that prior to hiring, eligible candidates are put through a Group Dynamics and Personality Assessment Test (GD&PAT) before being called for personal interviews.
“If we induct already well-trained staff, we can deploy them directly into our aircraft without any wastage of time.
“They would, at the most, require about a week’s orientation,” the source said.
25/05/09 The Hindu

Mumbai: Chennai-based Paramount Airways is set to hire over 1,000 people in phases over the next 15 months, even as big rivals prune staff and fleet size to cope with the effects of the economic downturn.
The personnel to be hired include cabin crew, technicians, pilots and ground staff as part of the airline’s fleet expansion plan. The airline, which now has 800 staff, plans to induct 15 new 80-seater Embraer planes into its fleet by the end of 2010.
The airline current has five Embraers and the new ones will come in under leases that will save on upfront investment.
“We are in the process of hiring and will employ 60 to 80 people per aircraft,” said 31-year-old M Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount Airways, who is a pilot by training.
The staff addition works out to between 900 and 1200 people for 15 aircraft to be inducted in 18 months from now. The airline recently enhanced its route network to western and eastern India. It is planning to operate multiple flights to north India in the next quarter, Thiagarajan said.
14/05/09 Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

Mumbai: Jet Airways has issued termination letters to a section of the 1,900 employees who were shown the door last October and quickly reinstated in a dramatic turn of events.
Sources said the airline had kicked off the termination process on April 30 in a phased manner. “Each day saw 30-60 employees exiting in batches,” said an airline cabin crew, requesting anonymity. Jet Airways will pay these employees a month’s pay, in the Rs 30,000-35,000 range, and also return the security deposits specified under the service contract bond. This works out to an additional Rs 1.5 lakh.
Sources say the layoffs are likely to continue till Saturday as the cabin crew numbering 3,500 has been given a roster only till May 15. “Usually the crew is given a roster for the entire month,” they added. A spokesperson for Jet said, “The roster is being issued today (May 14).”
The story doing the rounds is that the sacked employees who were reinstated last year signed an agreement, which apparently specified that they could not protest or take legal action against the company if their services were terminated due to poor financial health of the airline. This has not been officially confirmed by the airline.
The Jet spokesperson said in an email response, “The airline has issued notices of termination to some cabin crew on probation in accordance with the terms of their contracts and in compliance with the law.” She added that under the present global economic environment, Jet had undertaken additional measures to streamline costs and improve its financial health.
14/05/09 Shubhra Tandon/Varada Bhat/Business Line

New Delhi: India's second largest airline, Jet Airways, has retrenched all the 120 foreign airhostesses it had as part of its 3,000-strong cabin
crew. Jet has so far never hired cabin crew from the west and all expat airhostesses hailed from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. With Jet closing overseas crew bases in these three places, the 120 expats were laid off.
The move to retrench expat airhostesses is the latest in a series of steps taken to keep the airline afloat in tough times.
14/05/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

New Delhi: India's airlines, in a slump, are sending the following message to the cockpit: Foreign pilots, go home.
It's an abrupt turnaround from the past several years, when Western pilots looked to growing markets like India as saviors for their profession. While carriers in the U.S. and Europe struggled with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, India was opening its skies to new domestic carriers -- and hiring hundreds of foreign pilots to fill the new planes with experienced fliers.
But in the past several months, India's airline industry has contracted as the economic crisis has hit. Now, the industry is trying to cut costs.
Part of the solution: Firing expensive, though often more experienced, foreign pilots. India's government has effectively endorsed the purge. In March, it ordered airlines to get rid of all foreign pilots by July 2010.
For pilots, India's decision has raised a troubling question: If even growth markets like India won't hire pilots, who will?
Last year, in the twilight of his 45-year flying career, Svein Brendefur arrived in New Delhi with a single goal. "There was one thing I wanted very much that I wasn't able to do," the 64-year-old Norwegian says. "That was to fly the latest-generation planes."
After a career that included stints as a fighter pilot during the Cold War and at a big Scandinavian airline, he made captain for Indian carrier SpiceJet Ltd. and started flying the new Boeing jets.
Then, six days before Christmas, Mr. Brendefur was told his job at the Gurgaon-based airline would end at the end of the year. He has applied to other airlines in the Middle East and Asia, hoping to stay in the region. But, he says, he might be running out of time. "Every day, I'm coming closer and closer to 65, when no one will hire me anymore," he says.
More than 800 foreign pilots like Mr. Brendefur heeded the call to come to India, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. At their peak, they made up almost 20% of India's pilot corps.
Recently, though, the Indian aviation industry has hit hard times. The industry is expected to lose more than $1.5 billion in the year ended March 31, analysts estimate. Pleas for a government bailout have gone unanswered, and carriers say they have been forced to cut staff and sell planes to stay afloat.
In an election year, cutting Indians from the payroll has proved too politically sensitive. Firing foreign pilots, in contrast, doesn't set political alarm bells ringing, airlines and industry observers say.
"It makes overall economic sense to replace the expats," says Jack Ekl, chief pilot and executive vice president of flight operations for SpiceJet.
The airline still has 42 expatriate pilots, or roughly half of its captains, on the books, but expects to replace them by the government's deadline, he says.
Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. said it is "in compliance with the program" to phase out foreign pilots.
09/05/09 Niraj Sheth/Patrick Barta/The Wall Street Journal

Mumbai: Imagine appearing for the geometry examination only to find that the 100-mark paper has questions worth 20 marks from physics? Now think of the plight of the students if the pass marks in the exam is 70.
This is exactly what happened to hundreds of students who wrote the navigation paper for their commercial pilot licence examinations held this week.
"I was distraught when I started reading the navigation question paper and found the questions, one after the other, were related to the technical subject. For a moment, I thought I got the exam time-table wrong,'' a CPL aspirant said.
Hundreds of pilot-training students across India have been wondering why their question paper was so unfair. "Students in Bangalore and Delhi have started a signature campaign to bring this to the attention of the director-general of civil aviation. We plan to submit our complaint soon,'' a Mumbai student said. What students are certain of is a very high percentage of failure this time.
Students will have to wait for three months to attempt navigation the second time. DGCA Nasim Zaidi was not available for comments despite repeated attempts.
To get the commerical pilot licence, a student has to do 200 hours of flying training and clear written exams in four subjects: air meteorology, air regulations, technical (general and specific) and navigation.
09/05/09 Manju V/Times of India

Hyderabad: After flying high in the 1990s aviation boom, many flying schools are on the verge of getting grounded. Reason? Their licence agreements have not been renewed.
Surprisingly, licences of all the five flying schools in the state, including two in the city and one in Nadergul expired more than 10 years ago. This may pale in comparison as only two out of the 92 flying schools including private and government ones have valid licences in the country.
While many schools have been running for years without a licence, some have been forced to shut down or move to other locations.
"As far as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is concerned, all the schools in the state are unauthorised operators. But when schools want to renew their licences, they put forth terms which no one can accept," head of a flying school in the state rued. In fact, the five flying schools, including the historic Nizam's Flying Club have been functioning by paying the rent as per the previous lease agreements.
Though the industry has hit a huge air pocket, each school has an average of 250 students per term while some have up to 500 students. Now, school authorities are fearing eviction as the AAI has increased the land rent for all the schools. According to the notice, the total rent to AAI works out to around Rs 2.2 crore per annum. Ironically, the turnover of most schools is less than Rs 2 crore.In a ripple effect, the increase in the AAI rent rates is also expected to increase training fee from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 40 lakh for 200 hours of flying. This will push students to flying schools abroad where the fee is less than Rs 12 lakh.
Aviation experts predict that there will be no functioning flying schools in the state if the present licence policy persists as they would all move out to other states where the rent is reasonable.
"Hyderabad has had a very rich flying culture from the time of the Nizam and the state has a high number of flying enthusiasts. If the schools move out, this culture will die," an aviation expert said.
However, R K Singla director, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Hyderabad, said that there is nothing that the state authorities can do as the orders come from the centre.
08/05/09 Times of India

Kolkata/Bhubaneswar: Frankfinn Institute of Airhostess Training, a division of Frankfinn Aviation Service Limited, has beaten the recession blues and secured placements for 115 students in February and March this year.
Despite the prevailing economic downturn which had impacted the operations of the domestic as well as international airlines, Frankfinn has bagged as many as 93 offers from international airlines like Emirates Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Oman Air to name a few.
These international airlines have recruited students from the different Frankfinn centres across the country. Among the domestic carriers, low-cost carriers like GoAir, Indigo and Spice Jet have picked up students from the Frankfinn Institutes.
The average salaries at this year’s placements at Frankfinn are also at par with last year’s placements. The average domestic salaries at this year’s placements have stood at about Rs 25,000 per month while the average international salary was over Rs one lakh per month.
Apart from the aviation companies, the students at the different Frankfinn centres have also bagged offers from leading hotel chains like Taj Group of Hotels and Oberoi as well as from growing hospitality players like Leela Resorts, he claimed.
At present, Frankfinn runs 80 main centres and 35 information centres across the country. It also has an overseas centre at Dubai. Each Frankfinn centre trains about 200 students.
08/05/09 Jayajit Dash/Business Standard

Mumbai: The Coimbatore-based Paramount Airways, the country’s only fully business class airline, has decided to hire 80 foreign pilots over the next one year to meet the shortage of skilled local pilots.
Paramount will also recruit 200 local pilots in the current year in a staggered manner. The company’s existing 100-pilot-strong team already comprises 40% expats. The new foreign pilots are likely to get packages of around Rs 3.5 lakh per month, including an accommodation allowance.
Paramount managing director M Thiagarajan said the company conducted interviews in Chennai last week for recruiting foreign as well as local pilots. The second phase of hiring will take place in July, he added.
“We need more pilots as we are adding 10 aircraft to the existing fleet of six planes. We will increase services from the existing 1,800 flights to 2,500 flights per month by October,” said Mr Thiagarajan. India has about 1,000 foreign pilots working in domestic airlines.
Paramount forayed into eastern India last month, with flights to Kolkata, Guwahati and Agartala. It plans to add Shillong, Silchar, Imphal, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Cooch Behar to its network over the next year.
05/05/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

Mumbai: At least 2,500 airline employees are expected to lose their jobs in next four-six months from domestic carriers that are set to post a combined loss of $2 billion in 2008-09, according to airline executives and analysts. This is about 8% of the total workforce employed by private carriers.
Wiser with the Jet Airways (India) Ltd’s experience, domestic carriers are not going for large-scale retrenchments at one go. Instead, they are taking employees off payrolls in phases and small lots.
Jet Airways had planned to sack as many as 1,900 cabin crew in 2008 but had to abandon the plan in the face of stiff political resistance.
Retrenchment is only one leg of the cost-cutting exercise that domestic carriers are undertaking. They are also paring pay packets of existing employees, yet again.
The trigger for the retrenchment is a fresh round of capacity reduction of up to 20%, starting June. This is on top of the 15% cut in flights that domestic carriers had effected in mid-2008 in the wake of rising cost of aviation turbine fuel and mounting losses.
To add to their woes, India’s airlines posted an at least 10% decline in passenger traffic during the fiscal ended March, hit by a slowing economy and high fares.
Jet Airways has handed over pink slips to about three dozens executives who are at least 60 years old. It has also terminated some of the cabin crew on probation and other management staff and shut its offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
A Jet Airways spokeswoman said the carrier is constantly undertaking measures to streamline costs to improve the financial health of the firm in the wake of the challenging global economic environment.
Jet’s rival Kingfisher Airlines Ltd recently rationalized salaries of pilots by migrating to a remuneration structure linked to flying hours. It has also retrenched 300 employees, including foreign nationals who were drawing huge salaries. This has translated into a Rs10 crore annual saving for Kingfisher.
“We will review the need of further trimming the workforce based on the proposed capacity reduction,” said a senior executive with Kingfisher Airlines. He did not want to be identified, considering the sensitivity of the issue.
At least a dozen Kingfisher Airlines pilots are slated to leave the airline, following the change in their salary structure.
“You will see more technical staff quitting Indian carriers because of reduction in the remuneration structure. Since airlines are cutting number of flights, there is no scope for increase in salaries for engineers and pilots,” said another Kingfisher Airlines executive.
State-owned National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, or Nacil, that runs Air India, has also put recruitments on freeze. Since it is a government-run company, Nacil is not in a position to retrench employees but one of its executives said extending retired officers’ tenure will be restricted only in the operational areas with stringent terms and conditions. Traditionally, Nacil extends service of retired employees in key operational areas to capitalize on their experience.
Low-fare carriers such as SpiceJet Ltd and InterGlobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd are, on the other hand, hiring selectively even as GoAirlines (India) Pvt. Ltd and Paramount Airways Ltd have frozen recruitments.
West Asian carriers such as Qatar Airways, Oman Air (SAOC), Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and Air Arabia PJSC are hiring Indian pilots and engineers as they are expanding despite the global economic slowdown.
03/05/09 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given a ray of hope to pilots by rapping the knuckles of Kingfisher Airlines for misusing one of its directives. In fact, it could put other airline managements on the mat too for reducing pilot salaries arbitrarily, but refusing to allow them to leave for greener pastures.
A DGCA letter, dated April 24, 2009, to Kingfisher says it was reacting to information it had received that the airline was insisting pilots serve them for six months on reduced salary since it is a DGCA rule.
But the letter, which TOI has a copy of, informs the airline categorically, "This CAR (civil aviation requirement) on notice period shall not be made applicable on matters wherein terms and conditions of employment have been altered/amended and there is a dispute in employer-employee relationship. Such disputes may be settled in the appropriate court of law."
And that's precisely what Kingfisher and some other airlines have been doing reducing salaries, and perks of pilots and informing them simply via email. Flying hours too were reduced from 80-85 hours monthly to 55-50 hours as leased planes were sent back. "Recession was a valid reason, but that was no excuse for preventing us from leaving for better prospects," says a pilot.
The letter also informed Kingfisher that "the provisions of this CAR, Section 7, Series X, shall only be applicable wherein resignations by pilots result in cancellation of flights causing inconvenience to passengers and where such action holds the airline to ransom."
Meanwhile, Kingfishers spokesman Prakash Mirpuri, said, "We have taken note of the DGCA ruling and shall deal with the pilots who have resigned accordingly."
That CAR, incidentally, was imposed in 2005 and made it mandatory for pilots to serve a six-month notice period before quitting an airline to join another, unless the airline employing them gave a No Objection Certificate. The CAR was made when there was a severe shortage of pilots and was ostensibly meant to help passengers who were left in the lurch due to last-minute flight cancellations due to absentee pilots. However, with the present glut of pilots, mainly co-pilots, this CAR made no sense.
02/05/09 Shobha John/Times of India

Mumbai: Spicejet will not renew contracts of 55 foreign pilots, which are due to expire in June, October and December. “We will gradually replace foreign pilots with Indian talent in order to reduce salary costs,” a senior SpiceJet official told ET. Currently, expat pilots are paid a monthly salary of Rs 5 lakh, plus hotel accommodation of Rs 2 lakh, whereas their Indian counterpart draw Rs 3.6 lakh in a month. Confirming the development, SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal said the company will phase out foreign pilots and will follow the rules set by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Currently, SpiceJet has around 250 pilots, including expats. In 2005, the government allowed airline operators to hire foreign co-pilots, senior pilots or commanders till July 2010, as India did not have enough trained pilots. DGCA director general Kanu Gohain had said earlier that 1,490 foreign pilots were given licences last year to seek work in the Indian civil aviation sector. At present, India has 944 foreign pilots, of which 810 are commanders and 134 are co-pilots.
SpiceJet flew more than 4.59 million passengers in the last financial year, compared with about 4.50 million in the previous year. The airline has 19 aircraft, with nine more on order, which will join from early next year. It operates 117 flights daily to 18 cities.
01/05/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

Mumbai: Jet Airways, India's largest private airline, laid off 60 of its cabin crew members late on Thursday night. The dismissed crew members were part of the group of 850, who were laid off in October last year, only to be taken back the very next day by airline chairman Naresh Goyal.
"This time it did not come as a shock as the fear of being laid off hung like a sword over our heads after last year's high drama,'' said a cabin crew member. "Going strictly by our employment contract, most of us were eligible for our confirmation letters as we had completed our six months with the airlines, '' he added.
Confirming the development, a Jet Airways spokesperson said the airline had undertaken additional measures to streamline cost to improve its financial health under the current challenging global economic environment. "The airline has issued notices of termination to some crew members on probation in accordance with their terms of contract and in compliance with the law,'' said the official without revealing the number of employees laid off.
The airline said it would provide information like name and contact details of the dismissed personnel to other carriers interested in recruitments.
01/05/09 Manju V/Times of India