Privateer01 - nice post. Well written, succinct and accurate.
Jimmygill - as always interesting to read your thoughts. While I will disagree with many points, that is my opinion and does not make your point of view any less valid.
Carb-Heat - I can assure that you are some time off the mark. 185-220 hr pilots are occupying a control seat during t/o and landing in B777's at AI. They have done so for some time now. The expat FO's who were at AI all left (RAN !!!) at their first opportunity as they were placed as cruise relief to them. The 2500 to 12,500 hrs they had could not hold up to a prejudicial Cmdr.
Jimmygill, this is one issue I respectfully disagree with. Making a poor "GDM" by turning up drunk is not "unprofessional" or "stupid", it is bloody-well illegal, incomprehensibly negligent and those guilty MUST be FIRED and license suspended as a MINIMUM until they can prove that disgracefully poor "GDM" can never happen again. Not shaving or turning up to work in an untidy uniform, smoking in the cockpit, etc is "unprofessional". Turning up drunk goes waaaay beyond that.
Anyway, that's not the point of this thread. By all means remove the expats from India WHEN the local pilots can match the same level of experience, safety and skill. That does not mean that fraudulently completed simulator evaluations, fraudulently completed performance reviews, fraudulently completed route checks, etc, etc are put in place to "pretend" to fill the void. The number of pilots (Cmdrs or FO's) who either failed sim checks but were put on route checks to DXB to have that previous evaluation "hidden" was and perhaps still is unbelievable. Or when I as TRE was ORDERED to change an evaluation to keep a Cmdr on line..... (for the record, I refused and resigned not long after - see past posts).
Yes, remove all expats from Indian Aviation and force the local standard, incomprehensible corruption and low standards rise from the ashes where they lay at present. Bit please don't whine if the British government seek to remove / not renew visas for all Indian doctors from its shores, as they proposed not too long ago. In the eyes of many when I was a TRE at at AI, an FO with a CPL is "qualified" to fly a heavy jet. So too then is a 1 day medical school graduate also "qualified" to perform surgery. The have that piece of paper on the wall as do the "experienced" doctors don't they? Short sighted and naiive in the greatest of the description.
I sincerely hope, as I have always advocated, that as many national pilots as possible should be employed over expats. I for one would not like to see a compatriot of mine out of work due to labor being imported from elsewhere. BUT IF (!!!!) that labor could not offer the same level of safety and professionalism then unfortunately that is what must happen. In the mean time, the unemployed locals MUST BE shown every opportunity to be trained and tutored at the highest and most efficient level.
Is that happening? I hope those unemployed CPL holders are shown that right and opportunity, and in the mean time seek any flying job they can get and not sit at home expecting to be given a job.