Gulf beckons desi pilots with mega dollars

New Delhi: The New Year will see Indian airlines remaining a tense lot, trying to protect their prized pilots from being poached. While Gulf carriers are already on a poaching spree, Airbus A-320 pilots are waiting in the wings for the proposed Tata-Singapore Airlines JV to start hiring and also looking at Tata-AirAsia with interest.

The biggest threat of poaching is from Gulf carriers as they expand their fleets at rapid pace and are offering almost double the salary that pilots get here. A commander in an Indian carrier has an average monthly pay of Rs 5-7 lakh while they offer over Rs 10-11 lakh! Air India, for instance, has seen almost 25 resignations in past four months with majority of them going to Gulf carriers. Etihad, which was recently cleared to buy five Boeing-777 200 (long range) planes of AI, has hired six AI pilots type-rated on this aircraft.
02/01/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India