Foreign pilots in India to face the axe as airline revenues plunge

11 May 2009

With several Indian airlines having been brought to the brink due to the price wars of the past few years, the oil-price shock last year,  and the current recession, most of them have now decided to end the contracts of their highly paid foreign pilots, in order to save on costs.

Of the nearly 950 foreign pilots, 810 commanders and approximately 140 co-pilots, working in nearly all the Indian airlines, have become the first highly-paid casualties of the cost cutting exercise adopted by the Indian airline industry.

This is in contrast to 2005, when airlines were forced to hire foreign pilots at hugh salalries to overcome the shortage of skilled pilots, once the Indian civil aviation sector was opened up to private airlines.

Initially, airlines were allowed to hire co-pilots only until 30 May  2008 and senior pilots or commanders until July 2010. Virtually every airline - IA, Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Spice Jet among others - had employed pilots from the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Columbia, Romania, France and Denmark.

However, later in August 2008, the government extended the tenure of co-pilots for two more years to 2010 at the behest of the industry, as the newly trained Indian co-pilots did not have the requisite experience for flying the A-320s or the Boeings in their fleets.

Till August 2008, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, (DGCA) had handed out licenses to 1,490 foreign pilots to work  for Indian airlines.