A seventh aircraft is also to be inducted by mid-October and will be based in Calcutta. This will the first time that Alliance Air will be stationing an aircraft in Calcutta. Now, out of the four planes, two each are based in Delhi and Mumbai. Indian Airlines is planning to transfer all its 12 Boeing 737 aircraft to Alliance.
However, a shortage of requisite commanders and co-pilots has allowed only a phased handing over of the aircraft. Typically, a Boeing 737-200 type would require 3.5 to 4 commanders per aircraft. Additionally, pilots who are not endorsed to flying this type of aircraft would need anything between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 20 lakh for endorsement.
Alliance till now has only 19 commanders and 14 co-pilots. In order to save endorsement costs, the airline will be making new pilots undertake a fresher and check-out course involving a week's training.