an overview...
went through the posts and let me kindly advise fellow ppruners outside of india that most of them are unaware of the ground realities of the indian civil aviation industry..while we welcome words of encouragement and patience as is expected from any peer group.
lets go back to 1992-93...post the opening up of the indian skies, jet and sahara were the first of the pvt airlines that set up shop...followed by modi,east west,nepc,damania and a few regionals like vif and span air etc. thousands of kids like me armed with only a high school education went out to fulfil their goals of flying right seat for an airline ( there was hardly any general aviation then )...some flew in india...a lot went abroad.
by 1996...they all shut!...leaving just jet and sahara..we had pilots with 737/F27/B1900 type ratings suddenly out of jobs..while they got absorbed slowly thousands like me,fresh 250hr CPL's got a rude shock...we raved
ranted, set up an unemployed pilots society..met the civil aviation minister et al..there were just not enough jobs being created to give all of us employment...yes the rich and the influential did get in but the numbers were few..
2000-2002...expansion amongst airlines led to hiring...guys with cpl's from 2000 series were all suddenly renewing their licenses and medicals...a lot of us got employed..some were self sponsored and v.v..
2005...pvt airlines like spice, go and indigo commenced ops...more jobs created..
2007...aggressive expansion plans announced by most players led to a mad scramble to get a CPL...nothing wrong with that..
2008...GLOBAL RECESSION...it was just like when we initially started out at 1996...no jobs but thousands ( this time more people ) of unemployed CPL holders.
2009..rationalisation of fleets and routes...
2010..industry/economy poised for recovery and growth but the outlook is of guarded optimism...
there is no doubt as the economy grows, more cities are linked by air , right seat jobs will be created but slowly so please hang in there..a lot of guys have given good advice..follow it
fyi..my first job came after 6 yrs of unemployment...worked in sales/banking/7-11 (!) but kept my licenses/medicals current and never gave up on my dream..
and yes my first job was on the right of a shiny jet with all of my 300 odd hours and 90% of the new hires were just CPL holders back in business after several years of hibernation..that is the way things are in India..general aviation is a recent phenomena and there is no way in hell you can fault someone to eye that FO job in a big jet/turboprop (in that order! )...thats where the jobs are!...good luck to all of you..stay in touch with airline pilots...you'll feel much better...thats what I did...