Expat pilot nos fall by half in 2 years in India

Mumbai: Some airline chiefs believe an expatriate pilot's accent adds to their carrier's brand value, some maintain a sizable number of foreign contract pilots on their employee rolls and pay them handsome salaries on time, as they will never join a strike. Others look at immediate savings and hire trained expatriate pilots, cutting down on command training bills--money spent to train and upgrade a co-pilot to a commander. But the fact is that expatriate pilots have been an integral part of the Indian airlines growth story in the last one decade. The country cannot do without expatriate pilots as there are insufficient trained desi commanders to fill up the left-hand seats in cockpits of its passenger aircraft.
In the last two years, the number of foreign pilots has dwindled by half. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian civil aviation regulatory authority, there were 686 foreign pilots with airlines in India in 2009. As of March 2011, the number was 356. Jet Airways is the largest employer of foreign pilots, with 120 on its rolls as of March, compared to 192 in 2009. The number of foreign pilots employed with charter aircraft companies too went down from 406 in 2009, to 145 as of today.
11/07/11 Manju V/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Jul 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Jul 2011