460 foreign pilots on Indian flights

As many as 460 foreign nationals are working as commanders in flights by domestic carriers to meet the shortage of pilots, Minister of state for Civil Aviation Praful Patel informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
In a written reply, he said the government has decided to upgrade the capacity of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademy from 40 to 100 cadets a year and has set up a new flying Training Institute at Gondia in Maharashtra.
Besides, it has also conditionally increased the age limit for pilots to 65 years for exercising the privileges of their licences for commercial transport operations under prescribed conditions, he said.
Further, he said aircraft operators both scheduled and non-scheduled are permitted to employ foreign pilots as commanders to train Indian co-pilots so as to enable them being upgraded as Commanders.
01/08/06 Rediff

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