Hello
From the Directorate General of Civil Aviation website (DGCA),which is India's equivalent of the CAA (
www.dgca.nic.in)
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An Indian air transport operator can be permitted to employ flight crew and aircraft maintenance engineers holding foreign licences issued by a contracting State of ICAO, to operate and maintain Indian registered aircraft, as stipulated in the Civil Aviation Requirements No. 04/1998 dated 17th July, 1998, till Indian flight crew and engineers are trained and acquire appropriate Indian licence and ratings. (Extract)
(i) The request for validation of foreign licence of flight crew or aircraft maintenance engineer would be considered only from Indian operators when adequate number of such qualified personnel are not available in the country.
(ii) Validation of foreign pilot’s licence shall be for Pilot-in-Command or Flight Engineer only. For co-pilot functions, Indian pilots should be trained and employed as co-pilots.
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These are just some of the relevant parts.
till Indian flight crew and engineers are trained and acquire appropriate Indian licence and ratings
seems to be the cruical thing .
AFAIK there is no shortage of NG pilots in India as they have been around for a few years (atleast from 1999 or even earlier).
In short, from what I understand only if a new aircraft type is introduced (the one currently here is CRJs - a few of the ex midway as well as flybe one s are leased by another operator Air Sahara), there will be some ooportunity and that too for a short period.
Hope this helps. However let me hasten to add that I am not a piilot (not even a PPL) and this posting is just an exract from the DGCA site with no inside knoweldge of what is happening. I am sure the Airline pilots from India in this forum should be able to
advice if the above info is wrng (Unlike UK or USA, internet may not be always updated witho the latest circulars in time),
By the way the top level of Jet you are talking about which is full of foreigners are basically in the managment side, not on the flying side. The airline apparently has more faith in India's airline pilots than India's airline managers. First Kardasis, then Forte and now Prock-Schauer. Wonder why this fixation, ten years I assume is long enough for succession planning!
Cheers