India's Expat-Pilot numbers reduce by 50 percent in 2 years

MUMBAI, India -- Some airline chiefs believe an expatriate pilot's accent adds to their carrier's brand value, some maintain a sizable number of foreign contract pilots on their employee rolls and pay them handsome salaries on time, as they will never join a strike. Others look at immediate savings and hire trained expatriate pilots, cutting down on command training bills -- money spent to train and upgrade a co-pilot to a commander.
But the fact is that expatriate pilots have been an integral part of the Indian airlines growth story in the last one decade. The country cannot do without expatriate pilots as there are insufficient trained desi commanders to fill up the left-hand seats in cockpits of its passenger aircraft.
In the last two years, the number of foreign pilots has dwindled by half. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian civil aviation regulatory authority, there were 686 foreign pilots with airlines in India in 2009. As of March 2011, the number was 356. Jet Airways is the largest employer of foreign pilots, with 120 on its rolls as of March, compared to 192 in 2009.
The number of foreign pilots employed with charter aircraft companies too went down from 406 in 2009, to 145 as of today. The recent reason for decreasing numbers is DGCA's decision to have common medical tests for Indian and foreign pilots. Last December, DGCA made Class I medicals -- for Indian Air Force doctors at medical centres across the country -- mandatory for foreign pilots too.
Foreign pilots used to clear medical tests mandated by their country's aviation regulator. India's medical tests are more stringent, with a higher failure rate among pilots. "Many foreign pilots have thus been declared temporarily unfit. Also, the fear of failure increased attrition among foreign pilots," said a commander.
Airlines have launched incentives to attract foreign pilots. Three months ago, a private carrier introduced a 'loyalty bonus' (payment of $7,000 per year for every foreign pilot who joins). Indian carriers regularly hold roadshows in Europe to recruit foreign pilots, and incentives have increased.
Airlines can recruit foreign pilots only to fill vacancies to the commander's post. But if an airline retains its foreign commanders, it stops the career progression of its Indian co-pilots who are eligible to be trained and promoted as commanders. That in turn, affects the jobless commercial pilot licence (CPL) holders of the country as such an airline does not throw up vacancies to the co-pilot's post.
India has over 6,000 jobless CPL holders. These pilots, fresh out of flying schools, can be employed by airlines as trainee co-pilots after completion of a type-rating programme (simulator and class-room training, exams to fly a particular aircraft type, like an A320 or a Boeing 737).
The number of expat pilots started going down a few years ago due to pressure from Indian pilots' bodies on DGCA to force airlines to phase them out.