In February this year, IndiGo, India’s largest airline by fleet and domestic market share, announced that it would cut up to 2 percent of its schedule as it battles crew shortages. The airline had initially blamed the network-wide cancellations on the NOTAMs and diversions triggered by bad weather impacting crew duty time. A few days ago, GoAir cancelled flights across its network.
While the number was smaller than IndiGo, the impact is higher since GoAir is one-fifth of IndiGo in size by the fleet. GoAir, too, blamed the crew shortage on excess utilisation of pilots due to diversions and bad weather across the country. While for both IndiGo and GoAir shortage of pilots and the bad weather and diversions are indeed part of the reasons, what comes out is how precarious the pilot situation is in the country!
Interestingly, this comes in a year when one large airline in the country collapsed and the overall fleet growth has been modest, unlike previous years. This November, the government said that there are currently 436 expat pilots in the country. IndiGo has 239 while Alliance Air and GoAir have 64 each. Spicejet has 33, Trujet operates with 21 expat pilots while Vistara and Star Air have 8 and 4 respectively. Yet, pilot shortages plague the industry and leads to schedule disruption which eventually impacts the flying public.
It is estimated that currently there are 8,000 pilots in India for a commercial fleet of 650+ aircraft. Both Airbus and Boeing have been gung ho about the potential in India. While this year, both the leading manufacturers did not specify exact projection for India, last year Boeing had said that it foresees a demand of 2,380 aircraft for India by 2038. A year earlier, Airbus had predicted a demand of 1,750 aircraft for India by 2036. At the current ratio of pilots and commercial aircraft fleet, the requirement for pilots will balloon in excess of 28,000 in the next two decades. IndiGo has a large orderbook of 700+ aircraft while Spicejet has 200+ B737 MAX aircraft on order. Go Air has nearly 100 more aircraft on order and the two TATA airlines – Vistara and AirAsia India have been looking at opportunities to make a mark on the aviation scene.
27/12/19 Ameya Joshi/CNBC TV18
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While the number was smaller than IndiGo, the impact is higher since GoAir is one-fifth of IndiGo in size by the fleet. GoAir, too, blamed the crew shortage on excess utilisation of pilots due to diversions and bad weather across the country. While for both IndiGo and GoAir shortage of pilots and the bad weather and diversions are indeed part of the reasons, what comes out is how precarious the pilot situation is in the country!
Interestingly, this comes in a year when one large airline in the country collapsed and the overall fleet growth has been modest, unlike previous years. This November, the government said that there are currently 436 expat pilots in the country. IndiGo has 239 while Alliance Air and GoAir have 64 each. Spicejet has 33, Trujet operates with 21 expat pilots while Vistara and Star Air have 8 and 4 respectively. Yet, pilot shortages plague the industry and leads to schedule disruption which eventually impacts the flying public.
It is estimated that currently there are 8,000 pilots in India for a commercial fleet of 650+ aircraft. Both Airbus and Boeing have been gung ho about the potential in India. While this year, both the leading manufacturers did not specify exact projection for India, last year Boeing had said that it foresees a demand of 2,380 aircraft for India by 2038. A year earlier, Airbus had predicted a demand of 1,750 aircraft for India by 2036. At the current ratio of pilots and commercial aircraft fleet, the requirement for pilots will balloon in excess of 28,000 in the next two decades. IndiGo has a large orderbook of 700+ aircraft while Spicejet has 200+ B737 MAX aircraft on order. Go Air has nearly 100 more aircraft on order and the two TATA airlines – Vistara and AirAsia India have been looking at opportunities to make a mark on the aviation scene.
27/12/19 Ameya Joshi/CNBC TV18
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