Indian air force tackles commercial threat

The Indian air force is exploring the possibility of allowing some combat pilots to temporarily serve with airlines as a way of partially addressing the demands of India’s fast-growing civil aviation sector while retaining military personnel. “A strategy is being worked out to send pilots on deputation to airlines and absorbing them back,” says Air Marshal P S Ahluwalia, the air force’s director general of safety and inspection. Ahluwalia says the initiative is unlikely to draw widespread interest: ”None of the younger pilots want to shift from fighters to commercial aircraft.”
13/06/06 Flight International