Airlines face shortage of senior pilots

New Delhi: Already grappling with an acute crunch of co-pilots, the industry now also faces a shortage of commanders or captains (i.e. senior pilots with experience of more than 1,500 flying hours). Worse still, the situation doesn’t look too good in the future as it is estimated that there is a shortfall of 500 pilots in the country every year — of which more than 50% are commanders.
It takes nearly four years for a co-pilot to become a captain, though various airlines have different requirements to promote a co-pilot to the position of a captain. “….However, as it takes time to graduate to a level of captain, many airlines are recruiting expats for the job,” says Randeep Panag, director, United Aviation, a pilot training school.
Says Paramount Airways MD, M Thiagarajan, “… it will take at least four to five years before we can bridge this huge gap. ”
Currently, 2,500 pilots are working with airlines in India, of which 475 are expat pilots. “Airlines team up a foreign commander with an Indian co-pilot since at least one of the crew members should be an Indian, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) requirements,” says an industry source. In view of the shortage of co-pilots, DGCA had only recently issued a circular allowing airlines to have a crew of expat pilots.
“Owing to the acute paucity, we do depend on expatriate pilots to a large extent, especially for the ATR fleet,” says a Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson.
Indian recently advertised to fill up 239 vacancies of co-pilots. Although Indian officials claim that over 100 applications were received, sources said the actual number was much lower. To avoid such a situation, airline HR heads are designing policies keeping the expat factor in mind. Many airlines which earlier recruited pilots through HR agencies are hiring on their own by placing ads in various international newspapers.
But with around 460 planes to be added in next four years, it seems that the expats will remain in command of the cockpit.
17/06/07 Raja Awasthi & Vishakha Talreja/Economic Times