Pilots in demand as airlines begin hiring

New Delhi: For pilots waiting to switch jobs, the next financial year beginning Thursday seems to be the right time. With major expansion plans set to takeoff, low cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet are planning to recruit significant number of pilots this year.
Aditya Ghosh, president of IndiGo Airlines said, “We would hire about 100 new pilots in the cockpit this year.” Ghosh said that the carrier was looking at recruiting only Indian pilots in order to comply with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norms.
The aviation industry regulator had fixed July 31 as the deadline for domestic airlines to phase out their foreign pilots. “Our foreign pilots are down from 10 per cent to 7 per cent. We are also working on training Indian pilots,” Ghosh said.
SpiceJet, too, has similar plans. But the carrier wants to recruit foreign pilots as well. “At present, about 25 per cent of out total strength are foreign pilots. We are going to bring five more aircrafts this year and plan to start our international operations, for which we need at least 10 pilots per aircraft. The recruitment will depend on the requirement,” Samyukta Sridharan, COO of SpiceJet told FC.
Both the carriers are gearing up to go international and have applied for approvals to fly abroad. Though, the DGCA has already approved their route plans, a formal announcement on this, is yet to come.
30/03/10 Parul Chhaparia/mydigitalfc.com