I did hear from someone who was just hired by Jet. Sadly, this person along with a few others at Jet were called in the office to be told that their contracts were being terminated effective immediately. So there is some truth to NGfellows post. Spicejet has maintained the expat force thus far.
There is however a distinct difference. At Spicejet, expats are not paid while on leave (other than given a travel allowance). So the company can tell an expat to extend his leave (another word for being temporarily furloughed) and then call them back when needed assuming they want to come back. The expat force at Spicejet is quite small in comparison to Jet. I think we have around 70 expat Capts. On any given day usually 20-25 guys are on leave.
So the active (on payroll) expat force is around 45. The TOI article on the 26th is plagued with certain inaccuracies. For one it states that the expat pilots is taking flying away from young Indian pilots. The young Indian pilots are first-officers and occupy the right seat. The expat is a Capt and occupies the left seat. They don't affect each other in terms of hours flown. There was mention made of expat capts earning 10 lakhs while the Indians only earn 6 lakhs. Let me just say that in the 18 months I have been here I have never even come close to the amount given. Even on the months where I flew close to 120 hrs. It is true that the overall flying has dropped and we now fly around 60-65 hrs. The complaint about the expat making more now (15-20%) because of the strong dollar. Well, that is currently true, but what about when the expat was losing 15-20% when the dollar had dropped over the past 18 months? No one seemed too bothered then.
I think there will continue to be an opportunity for the expat Capt in India for a limited time and in limited quantities. As NG pointed out the airline might want you but the DGCA can squash that in an instant. It is quite probable that the DGCA will insist on all expats out by July 2010 regardless of the consequences to the airlines or they might put a maximum percentage value on the FATA's issued per airlines.