Air India's Problem Is Myopia
Air India has the dubious distinction of being the only Indian carrier with almost 73 experienced senior First Officers with ATPLs,many thousands of hours of total time and almost ten years of service ,who are not even being considered for Command training due to vested personal interests in the airline.
It appears that the airline prefers expats ( many of whom work as a cartel hired by various recruitment agencies) to upgrading its own Indian co pilots - despite the fact that many of the expats are allowed upto 108 days off every year apart from the mandatory Time Off , a luxury denied to the Indians.
This automatically raises the question: What goes on between these recruitment agencies and those who ink such deals?
Another issue that defies logic is that the Indian DGCA only holds ATPL written exams 4 times a year
Clearly, there are people in India- both in the Government and airline management , who see a lot more to the pilot shortage than meets the eye !