DGCA to issue new rules for hiring Expat Pilots
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DGCA to issue new rules for hiring Expat Pilots
New Delhi: India’s aviation regulator plans to do its bit to reduce unemployment among the country’s pilots by introducing new rules that will make it mandatory for airlines to hire two locals for every expat, but not necessarily for duties in the cockpit, according to two officials aware of the matter.
India has about 350 foreign pilots, down from 800 four years back. The country’s airlines had been required to phase them all out by December 2013.
This deadline is to be extended to 2016 by the regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), provided the new condition is met, said one of the two persons cited above. The second person confirmed the development. Neither wanted to be named.
For every pilot from overseas on the rolls, an airline will need to hire two unemployed commercial pilot licence (CPL) holders and give them alternative jobs such as flight dispatchers or in radio telephony. They can be given jobs as co-pilots based on merit, whenever vacancies open up, the first official said.
“This will address the issue of unemployment to some extent and they will be in an aviation environment instead of sitting at home,” he said. The official said he gets hundreds of requests from high court judges, senior bureaucrats and members of Parliament recommending pilots who are friends or family for jobs.
The formula is being worked out, said the second official.
India has more than 4,000 unemployed CPL holders. In 2009, the government had asked the airlines to phase out pilots from overseas on their rolls by July 2011 so that Indian co-pilots could be promoted. This deadline kept getting extended and the latest one is December.
Air India Ltd; Jet Airways (India) Ltd; Kingfisher Airlines Ltd; IndiGo, run by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, and SpiceJet Ltd all employ foreign pilots.
It’s unclear if qualified Indian pilots, typically at the apex of the employee pyramid in an airline, will take a flight dispatcher’s job, said an analyst. The job generally entails preparation of all the paperwork for a flight such as weather reports, fuel planning and loads on the aircraft.
“It will only make it worse for the unemployed pilots,” said Mohan Ranganthan, an aviation safety analyst and a member of the government-appointed Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council. He said DGCA should have enforced the December deadline.
“The deadline was made in 2010 for 2013. For three years, none of the operators planned properly and DGCA failed to monitor. If the regulator had functioned as a regulator and pulled up the failure of operators to plan for the future, they have to be blamed. SpiceJet had regu lar training programmes to promote their own first officers. If the other airlines have failed, they are to be blamed, along with DGCA, who did not enforce the clause in the CAR (civil aviation requirement) for FATA (foreign aircrew temporary authorization).”
SpiceJet does not employ any foreign pilots except on its smaller Bombardier Q400 aircraft inducted recently. Indian pilots aren’t yet skilled enough to fly the plane.
Prospects for fresh aviation school graduates aren’t likely to improve any time soon, said aviation consulting firm CAPA Centre for Aviation. “There are many, many who are jobless,” said CAPA South Asia chief executive Kapil Kaul. “There is a serious concern among CPL holders. There isn’t unfortunately any solution in the near term.”
An aspiring pilot needs to spend roughly Rs.35-50 lakh on training to get a flying licence depending on where the person trained and on what aircraft type. If funded by a bank loan, the repayment could be as much as Rs.35,000-50,000 per month over a year-and-a-half.
CAPA said it will take a long time for the 4,000 unemployed pilots to be absorbed as airlines have slowed the induction of aircraft as the market has eased up.
Shakti Lumba, a former vice-president of Air India and IndiGo, said the aviation ministry should find a more amicable solution to the crisis.
“The aviation ministry should accept CPL equivalent to graduation for all civil aviation jobs, including those in the Airport Authority of India, DGCA and Air India, and CPL holders (have) to be given priority for self-employment in airport, commercial spaces, porter services, aircraft cleaning services, (among other options),” he said.
Pilots also need to renew their licences if they don’t get a job, which means spending another Rs.5-7 lakh. By the time there’s space for some of these unemployed CPL holders, they may not have skills “relevant” to the market, said Kaul. “They will have to do something else. They will have to find alternative employment,” he said.
Livemint: 21st May 2013
India has about 350 foreign pilots, down from 800 four years back. The country’s airlines had been required to phase them all out by December 2013.
This deadline is to be extended to 2016 by the regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), provided the new condition is met, said one of the two persons cited above. The second person confirmed the development. Neither wanted to be named.
For every pilot from overseas on the rolls, an airline will need to hire two unemployed commercial pilot licence (CPL) holders and give them alternative jobs such as flight dispatchers or in radio telephony. They can be given jobs as co-pilots based on merit, whenever vacancies open up, the first official said.
“This will address the issue of unemployment to some extent and they will be in an aviation environment instead of sitting at home,” he said. The official said he gets hundreds of requests from high court judges, senior bureaucrats and members of Parliament recommending pilots who are friends or family for jobs.
The formula is being worked out, said the second official.
India has more than 4,000 unemployed CPL holders. In 2009, the government had asked the airlines to phase out pilots from overseas on their rolls by July 2011 so that Indian co-pilots could be promoted. This deadline kept getting extended and the latest one is December.
Air India Ltd; Jet Airways (India) Ltd; Kingfisher Airlines Ltd; IndiGo, run by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, and SpiceJet Ltd all employ foreign pilots.
It’s unclear if qualified Indian pilots, typically at the apex of the employee pyramid in an airline, will take a flight dispatcher’s job, said an analyst. The job generally entails preparation of all the paperwork for a flight such as weather reports, fuel planning and loads on the aircraft.
“It will only make it worse for the unemployed pilots,” said Mohan Ranganthan, an aviation safety analyst and a member of the government-appointed Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council. He said DGCA should have enforced the December deadline.
“The deadline was made in 2010 for 2013. For three years, none of the operators planned properly and DGCA failed to monitor. If the regulator had functioned as a regulator and pulled up the failure of operators to plan for the future, they have to be blamed. SpiceJet had regu lar training programmes to promote their own first officers. If the other airlines have failed, they are to be blamed, along with DGCA, who did not enforce the clause in the CAR (civil aviation requirement) for FATA (foreign aircrew temporary authorization).”
SpiceJet does not employ any foreign pilots except on its smaller Bombardier Q400 aircraft inducted recently. Indian pilots aren’t yet skilled enough to fly the plane.
Prospects for fresh aviation school graduates aren’t likely to improve any time soon, said aviation consulting firm CAPA Centre for Aviation. “There are many, many who are jobless,” said CAPA South Asia chief executive Kapil Kaul. “There is a serious concern among CPL holders. There isn’t unfortunately any solution in the near term.”
An aspiring pilot needs to spend roughly Rs.35-50 lakh on training to get a flying licence depending on where the person trained and on what aircraft type. If funded by a bank loan, the repayment could be as much as Rs.35,000-50,000 per month over a year-and-a-half.
CAPA said it will take a long time for the 4,000 unemployed pilots to be absorbed as airlines have slowed the induction of aircraft as the market has eased up.
Shakti Lumba, a former vice-president of Air India and IndiGo, said the aviation ministry should find a more amicable solution to the crisis.
“The aviation ministry should accept CPL equivalent to graduation for all civil aviation jobs, including those in the Airport Authority of India, DGCA and Air India, and CPL holders (have) to be given priority for self-employment in airport, commercial spaces, porter services, aircraft cleaning services, (among other options),” he said.
Pilots also need to renew their licences if they don’t get a job, which means spending another Rs.5-7 lakh. By the time there’s space for some of these unemployed CPL holders, they may not have skills “relevant” to the market, said Kaul. “They will have to do something else. They will have to find alternative employment,” he said.
Livemint: 21st May 2013
Last edited by Aeronotix; 21st May 2013 at 05:04.
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Too bad...
...that there's thousands of morons that lured by false employment promises risk a respecfull amount of daddy's cash, making the fortune of flying schools across the world.
India needs lots of competent engineers, technicians, doctors, not pilots. Of course this takes much more dedication and effort than to get a CPL and land a job at an airline.
This group is just one more urdle for the already troubled days in the aviation industry in India, by the annoying and useless political pressure.
This guys need a reality check on career options.
India needs lots of competent engineers, technicians, doctors, not pilots. Of course this takes much more dedication and effort than to get a CPL and land a job at an airline.
This group is just one more urdle for the already troubled days in the aviation industry in India, by the annoying and useless political pressure.
This guys need a reality check on career options.
Last edited by fullforward; 21st May 2013 at 14:00.
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EXPATS
I wish my home country would reduce the number of pilots from Indian heritages to the 350 number. Then maybe my son and other young pilots could get a job in their home country instead of flipping burgers for Indians that are flying in our country.
Tit 4 Tat....India eliminates expats, other Countries eliminate Indians from flying as an Expat. Then listen to the rich Indian daddies piss and moan.
Tit 4 Tat....India eliminates expats, other Countries eliminate Indians from flying as an Expat. Then listen to the rich Indian daddies piss and moan.
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its simple demand and supply here.
india cannot find QUALIFIED CAPTAINS to meet the requirements of insurance companies to fill seats and thats why expats are needed!
the same thing is going on around the world... china, inodnesia.
maybe the DGCA needs to stop Indians from going abroad for flight training
but if the young boys want to go and burn daddys money then they sure can!
india has no option than to keep the expats deem necessary to fill the seats in cockpit. when there will be enough qualified indian captains and fo's, expats will be self eliminated due to sheer suppy.
india cannot find QUALIFIED CAPTAINS to meet the requirements of insurance companies to fill seats and thats why expats are needed!the same thing is going on around the world... china, inodnesia.
maybe the DGCA needs to stop Indians from going abroad for flight training
but if the young boys want to go and burn daddys money then they sure can!india has no option than to keep the expats deem necessary to fill the seats in cockpit. when there will be enough qualified indian captains and fo's, expats will be self eliminated due to sheer suppy.
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No one even mentions or complains about the new CAR on training that puts even more restrictions and costs to airlines or charter companies who want to upgrade SIC to PIC or even the ridiculous requirements now for a new SIC to be inducted....
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Training CAR
@itsbrokenagain: maybe thats coz no one else has gotten around to reading it 
including training departments it seems. 1000 hours on commercial planes and an SIC has to do ONLY 15 SLFs while anyone with less than that has to do 30 SLF to be cleared to fly as SIC.. only once it becomes effective in Sept and Operators are found guilty of non compliance will maybe someone realize what a ridiculous document that really is. as if its not tough enough to find Instructors, the clowns have taken it one step further with ABSOLUTELY no increment in safety/training/operations or logic
whats your take on the route competency checks for PICs in the same CAR? how in the world will any NSOP get his PICs trained on every possible "route" one wonders. what if the boss decides to go from Mysore to Pondicherry? or Bangalore to Chandigarh?
"Sorry chief we cant do it coz no one flies on that route and we have never flown it soooo we cant even carry an observer."
On second thoughts maybe we could carry a flight school trainee for the Mysore-Pondicherry leg as observer to advise us of the traps in the route!
The rules have yet again been crafted with airlines in the mind and been forced down the throat of Non Schedule Operators by the geniuses working at Safdarjung..
including training departments it seems. 1000 hours on commercial planes and an SIC has to do ONLY 15 SLFs while anyone with less than that has to do 30 SLF to be cleared to fly as SIC.. only once it becomes effective in Sept and Operators are found guilty of non compliance will maybe someone realize what a ridiculous document that really is. as if its not tough enough to find Instructors, the clowns have taken it one step further with ABSOLUTELY no increment in safety/training/operations or logicwhats your take on the route competency checks for PICs in the same CAR? how in the world will any NSOP get his PICs trained on every possible "route" one wonders. what if the boss decides to go from Mysore to Pondicherry? or Bangalore to Chandigarh?
"Sorry chief we cant do it coz no one flies on that route and we have never flown it soooo we cant even carry an observer."
On second thoughts maybe we could carry a flight school trainee for the Mysore-Pondicherry leg as observer to advise us of the traps in the route!
The rules have yet again been crafted with airlines in the mind and been forced down the throat of Non Schedule Operators by the geniuses working at Safdarjung..
Last edited by Challenger05; 24th May 2013 at 05:42.
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CF680E1.. even Indonesia does not want them, anymore. due to the fact that most have dubious licenses and very spoilt attitude. They forget, that they carry there OWN bags and cant treat people like slaves.....
PEspecially after the infamous.JT 904.accident where an.Indian co-pilot helped a brand new 738 perform a water landing on Kuta beach ... I still can't understand why he gave the controls to the capt at 150 ft rather than do.the go around.himself.
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Smiling monkey... I guess he handed over the controls at 150FT because he realised that he is not a SUPERSTAR pilot afterall.. wear aviator raybans and looking the part does not make you a pilot, you need to walk the walk to....
for the Indian pilot who took the B738 for a surf lesson...
I guess a line from Top gun sums it up..... "What you should have done was land your plane ON THE RUNWAY! You don't own that plane, the BANKS do! Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash"
for the Indian pilot who took the B738 for a surf lesson...
I guess a line from Top gun sums it up..... "What you should have done was land your plane ON THE RUNWAY! You don't own that plane, the BANKS do! Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash"
Last edited by jetjockey696; 24th May 2013 at 11:48.
