Indian aviation industry will look for 6,000 additional pilots over next five years: Praful Patel
29 Apr 2008
New Delhi: India's fast-growing aviation industry, is currently facing a shortage of approximately 1,000 qualified pilots, union civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, informed the Rajya Sabha through a written reply. He also said that the industry will likely require an estimated 6,000 additional certified captains over the next five years.
"With the present growth of the aviation industry, it has been estimated that in the next five years, 5,000 additional pilots would be required for scheduled operations and 1,000 pilots for non-scheduled and private operations," he said.
Patel also said that the Government had taken various steps, including increasing the retirement age of pilots to 65 years as well as setting up a training institute in Maharashtra, to meet demand..
He also said that other steps included up-gradation, and modernisation, of infrastructure at the India Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Akademi designed to enhance its training capacity from 40 to 100 pilots, as well as the reduction of the training period.
He also informed Parliament's Upper House that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had not invited foreign pilots to work in the sector.
In response to another question, Patel said the Government had approved the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) prepared by the DGCA for carriage of physically challenged persons in flights in consultation with Airports Authority of India, Federation of Indian Airlines and NGOs.
