Airlines in India discouraged from hiring foreign pilots

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has told airlines in the country to reduce their dependence on foreign pilots amid a shortage of cockpit crew to fly new aircraft being acquired by India.

“To overcome the shortage of pilots, all scheduled and non-scheduled airlines have been advised to develop their own in-house strength to reduce the dependence on foreign pilots,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told Parliament in a written reply on Wednesday.

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of national carrier, Air India, employs 55 foreign pilots, budget carrier IndiGo has 46 and Jet Airways has hired 41 foreign pilots.

The government, meanwhile, extended the Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation (FATA) provision, which allows India-based carriers to hire foreign crew, until the end of 2020 to overcome the shortage of pilots.

India may need 1,000 new pilots every year over the next decade to fly hundreds of aircraft that will be delivered to local carriers, according to industry estimates.

“Compared to the steep growth of the Indian airline industry, there is no natural influx of homegrown pilots, especially commanders in India.

“We have to depend on expatriates,” Cornelis Vrieswijk, Chief Eexecutive Officer of budget airline Go-Air, was quoted as saying by the Economic Times recently. — Bernama