India''s shortage of pilots set to ease?

In India, airline pilots have become an envied lot. They have plush jobs with seven-figure salaries and are constantly besieged by lucrative offers from rival airlines desperate for operational staff.

With salaries ranging from Rs5 lakh a month to over Rs10 lakh a month, depending on the aircraft they fly and their experience, pilots are probably among the highest paid salaried professionals in India.

The country''s crippling shortage of pilots in the past few years has meant an additional cost burden of up to 5 per cent for airlines that are already struggling to make ends meet. But gradually, the scenario may just be changing…

Over the past three years poaching had sent remunerations spiralling. But in the past 12 months salaries have begun to stabilise. It''s four years since India''s aviation industry got new low-cost wings.

Pilots were in great demand because India had been getting five or six new planes every month, which means hiring 50 to 60 additional pilots every month. But all the country''s pilot training academies put together have been producing just about 200 pilots a year.

So, airlines have increasingly had to bank on expatriates. Now, the staggering losses that low-cost airlines are incurring have forced them to scale back their ambitious expansion plans.

After adding 150 planes a year between financial years 2005 and 2007, airlines added just 50 in the year to date. Experts say that in the next few years there could actually be a dip in salaries, as it happened earlier in the US and Britain.

Most airlines have introduced their own training programs, the government has increased the retirement age for pilots, and has eased the entry norms for the profession. Besides, airlines are in a consolidation mode.

All this has eased the pilot shortage in India. Another reason that salaries have stabilised is because pilots must now give six months notice to quit. But some experts say the relief is temporary. Once airlines consolidate and are set to expand again, pilots could become a precious resource once again.