anyway I was always against deregulation but if this is what happens when one Airline controls a country than I may have changed my mind.....
There was a time back in the 80's when Air India was the sole indian carrier flying international while another state owned carried Indian Airlines operated domestic and regional flights (kind of like the BOAC and BEA).
But since the 90's we have had an open skies policy allowing private Indian owned carriers like Jet and KingFisher among others.
So it is a deregulated market and AI is not the only game in town. In fact it is number 3 or 4 in terms of market share with Jet and KF leading.
baby?
awww! sorry honey, you will have to take your sweet talk someplace else!
well TopTup and I agree on one thing: that there is corruption in AI and they should really be more stringent in its recruitment standards: I really hope they pull up procedures to ensure that professional whiners and "keyboard warriors" of the kind we see here, are kept out of the Air India cockpits.
If Ms.Fonda had actually read my post he would have seen how I held Indian carriers equally at fault for recruiting expats and the reason why this is continuing is the potential for cuts that expat recruitment provides. The situation is sad really: there are a multitude of contractors/agents/pimps (insert suitable word of choice: mean the same thing), who have wormed their way into the airlines: and its not just air india. Recruiting expats is a lucrative business, far more than recruiting a lowly but wholly qualified indian.
Expat recruitment via one of these agency/pimps ensures cuts for not just the agents but others in the chain as well. And a casual look at the list of these pimps reveals that most of them are either ex-Air India staffers or the son/brother/mother in law of someone working at the airline.
This cut system ensures the unhealthy trend of recruiting more and more less-qualified expats at the expense of locals. Its one thing when this is done to tide over a shortage of pilots (as was the case in 2004). But quite another when it becomes the norm.
And one cannot ignore the fact that most of the incidents/accidents in Indian aviation since 2007 onwards can be attributed to an expat pilot. There may be reasons for that (separate discussion): but one cannot overlook this fact when exploring alternatives.
And yes: One major benefit of keeping expats out would be a lot less whining on forums like these.
Find but ONE comment where I have not endorsed nationals being employed over locals IF safety cannot be compromised,
Aaah! so safety is compromised when locals are employed? All these incidents documented in the past 3.5 years happened with local pilots at the helm? Yes Ms.tipTop: someone had to say it and that someone had to be you: the white man is infinitely more qualified to fly and us natives should be thankful to the sahib for keeping our skies safe!
