Bipin Shah   Self Employed
Several hundred foreign pilots and a large number of unemployed Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) holders could soon find jobs in Indian airlines if the country's civil aviation regulator has its way to reduce the daily flying hours of commercial pilots to allow them more rest.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has recently issued a circular in the form of a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) seeking feedback from airlines to cut the maximum daily flying and duty hours of pilots from 10 to eight hours in the domestic sector and also lower the number of flying hours in the international sector.

The regulator believes that such a move would address the problem of pilot fatigue and is in the best interest of aviation safety. But experts disagree. According to them such a move, along with the ongoing probe on fake pilot certificate issue, would create a severe shortage of pilots in India forcing airlines to hire foreign pilots, more specifically captains.

"I expect 20 per cent shortage of pilots in India on both these grounds and over 600 foreign pilots would be hired by India's airlines as captains are in short supply. We don't have surplus captains in India and the flight duty time limit (FDTL) issue would affect the captains rather than first officers (co-pilots)," said Captain Yash Tongia, chief flight instructor, Yash Air, a flying school.

Currently, more than 4,000 commercial pilots are working in India's airline industry and a 20 per cent additional manpower requirement entails induction of another 800 pilots into airlines. If 600 of them would be sourced from overseas, little more than 200 CPL holders could find jobs, analysts felt.

The unemployment problem is massive among CPL holders as there has been excess supply during the past three years. According to current estimates, over 3,500 CPL holders are looking for jobs and it is expected to take a long time to clear the backlog. However, a few hundred could be absorbed as the requirement of pilots is on the rise. A section of pilots is up in arms against the move stating that the new rules would benefit the airlines more rather than pilots.

"The existing FDTL is perfectly fine and is based on scientific data of global aviation bodies. I want to know from the DGCA as to what is the authenticity of the scientific data they have used to come out with the proposed changes," said Captain Girish Kaushik, a senior commander working in a large private airline.

According to analysts, already 600 foreign pilots are flying on Indian carriers and the changes would negate the government's policy of induction of more Indian pilots into our airlines. In the past two years, following a hue and cry airlines were forced to reduce the number of foreign pilots. However, this scenario is expected to change soon.

Officials from two major airline employers, Jet and Kingfisher Airlines, did not comment. Besides the FDTL issue, the fake pilot certificate scam is also causing concern in the industry as a rising number of such pilots are being grounded, compounding the problems of the airlines.

On Tuesday, the Delhi police arrested two such pilots from Ahmedabad along with a tout. More arrests are expected in the coming days and the DCGA is scrutinising the records of over 4,000 pilots after the scam first broke out. So far, nine pilots have been booked for allegedly forging papers to get licences. An aviation boom in 2006-07 caused severe shortage of manpower, more so of pilots and engineers.

The situation had forced some people to bypass the rules and now they are being caught.
Apr 8th 2011 00:45