Fed Up 1
Here is the lead in to the earlier quotes (15 April 2008)
Faced with an acute shortage of trained pilots, various airlines have engaged nearly 1,000 foreign pilots, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
However, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has advised all scheduled, non-scheduled and general aviation operators to submit their plan to phase out foreign pilots and replace them by trained Indian pilots, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said in a written reply.
As per the plan submitted by the operators, all the foreign pilots are likely to be repatriated in approximately five years time
Note there is no discrmination between domestic and international carriers. On the question of optimism by the DGCA it is interesting to note that around the same time as this decision was made public they approved an additional 3 carriers (2 domestic passenger and 1 freight the latter possibly international). So can not see them managing with only national pilots now or in 5 years time!!!!
