Air pocket looms for carriers

Airlines are drawing up plans to prevent the pilot shortage from hurting their growth.

Indian carriers' aggressive expansion plans could run into an air pocket, with the availability of trained pilots becoming a major hurdle.

The scramble for pilots has reached a stage where carriers are either tying up with pilot training schools, or picking up fresh school passouts and enrolling them in pilot training establishments in India and abroad.

Some carriers"" Air Deccan, for instance"" are even setting up their own pilot training academies. "There is an issue of availability of pilots. If we have a dedicated pilot training establishment, then it becomes easier for us," says G R Gopinath, the airline's managing director.

India has a pool of about 2,000 operating pilots, while some 300 new pilots pass out with basic licences from flying schools every year. With 250-odd new aircraft to be inducted over the next five years, 2,500 - 3,000 more pilots will be needed, merely to meet the regulatory requirement of five pilots per aircraft owned by a carrier.

Earlier this year, the scramble for pilots reached a peak: about 20-25 pilots left one carrier in a single day, causing airlines to cancel services on a large scale. The government then stepped in and brokered a truce.

A six-month notice period is now mandatory for pilots wanting to leave an airline, and violations will lead to loss of the commercial pilots' licence.

Options like payment of transfer fees to rival airlines in cases where pilots are poached at short notice have been explored. And carriers agreed on measures"" including a cap on salaries and perks"" to prevent poaching of pilots and engineering staff.

Carriers are lining up aggressive hiring plans. With 43 new aircraft due to join its fleet over the next 24 months, state-owned Indian will recruit 200 pilots (its single largest pilot recruitment drive), which will raise its pilot strength to 800.

"We are inducting new airplanes into our fleet. We also have a shortage of pilots. These new recruits are expected to meet our requirements," said an Indian executive. The pilots are to be recruited from both pilot training schools and other carriers.

Indian also wants to engage with pilot training establishments to ensure a steady stream of pilots in the future as well. Pilot training is costly, the cost normally shared between the pilot and the airline. Basic training on the Airbus A-320 for a trainee pilot costs about Rs 3 lakh; at the next level, which includes 500 hours flying experience, it costs some Rs 25 lakh. Anxious not to lose talent, some airlines are even insisting on a 10-year mandatory serving period for those hired as trainees.

Jet Airways, Air Deccan, Air Sahara and IndiGo also have ambitious hiring plans. "We need more trained manpower. We are looking at hiring from the existing pool of pilots as well as from outside the country," said Bruce Ashby, president and chief executive, IndiGo.

The hiring will be at various seniority levels, including trainees and senior captains, and with strict conditions.

Predictably, salaries of domestic airline pilots have soared in the last two years. On average, pilots switching jobs can expect to get salary increases of 75 - 100 per cent. An entry-level pilot's salary has also gone up in the same range.

On an average, a pilot at the start of his career gets about Rs 75, 000 as salary, with a large part of it in allowances. For a senior pilot, the overall salary package will be about Rs 300,000 to Rs 400,000, depending on the flying hours put in.

To ease the pilot shortage, the government is setting up flying schools and expanding capacity at existing pilot training establishments. It has also decided to increase pilots' retirement age from 60 years to 62.