India facing a dearth of commercial pilots

To face the crisis of acute shortage of commercial pilots, the age limit for existing pilots is being raised to 65 from 60. Private players are poaching from other airlines offering higher salaries. Also, pilots from the Defence services are being baited to join the commercial stream. All these are not sufficient to face the requirement of 18,000 pilots worldwide and 5,000 pilots in India in the coming year, laments Kumar Rajagopal, International Student Co-ordinator, Proflite Australia Flight Training Centre, Sydney, Australia. Producing qualified commercial pilots is the only solution to this, he tells Amutha Kannan.
“Though there are a number of training schools in India, they are unable to produce a high number of pilots in the stipulated time. Due to various constraints like lack of air space, runway, non-availability of aircraft and stringent Government regulations, they are able to complete the one-year course only in three years. Also, they get trained only on single-engine aircraft. For a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) flying a multi-engine aircraft is mandatory,” says Mr. Rajagopal. Due to the above reasons, many schools have closed down, he laments. Another major reason is, as flying instructors have become pilots, these schools have been deprived of qualified instructors.
Stating that a good school can train a candidate in eight to 12 months, he adds that those who qualify abroad can come to India and get converted as per the local norms and start off as co-pilots or second officers with a starting monthly salary of Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1 lakh.
03/06/08 Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka