"The move will benefit more than 5,000..."
05/05/2009

Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is planning to phase out foreign pilots and lower pilots' retirement age. Owing to restrictions imposed by the model code of conduct ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the government would announce a package making jobs available for unemployed Indian pilots once the elections are over, a DGCA official told DNA on the condition of anonymity.

The move will benefit more than 5,000 youth who during the pre-meltdown aviation boom trained as commercial pilots in countries such as Canada, Russia, the US and the Philippines, spending Rs25-30 lakh in the process, but are now without jobs. It will also benefit about 2,000 youth who are soon to complete pilot training.

The DGCA has prepared a draft proposal recommending foreign pilots' period of employment be reduced from three to two years and the retirement age for a pilot brought down from 65 to 60 years. The policy is likely to create 2,000 vacancies in the next six months, the official said. Such is the job drought that Air India has received more than 1,350 responses to an advertisement for 30 trainee pilot posts. But just three years ago, there was a serious shortage of pilots in the country, necessitating emergency recruitment of pilots from abroad.

Paramount set to recruit 80 foreign & 200 local pilots in a year
05/05/2009

Mumbai: The Coimbatore-based Paramount Airways, the country’s only fully business class airline, has decided to hire 80 foreign pilots over the next one year to meet the shortage of skilled local pilots.

Paramount will also recruit 200 local pilots in the current year in a staggered manner. The company’s existing 100-pilot-strong team already comprises 40% expats. The new foreign pilots are likely to get packages of around Rs 3.5 lakh per month, including an accommodation allowance.

Paramount managing director M Thiagarajan said the company conducted interviews in Chennai last week for recruiting foreign as well as local pilots. The second phase of hiring will take place in July, he added. “We need more pilots as we are adding 10 aircraft to the existing fleet of six planes. We will increase services from the existing 1,800 flights to 2,500 flights per month by October,” said Mr Thiagarajan. India has about 1,000 foreign pilots working in domestic airlines.

Paramount forayed into eastern India last month, with flights to Kolkata, Guwahati and Agartala. It plans to add Shillong, Silchar, Imphal, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Cooch Behar to its network over the next year.

Spice Jet announced recently that it will hire more pilots as they expand their routes by 20% over the next two months!
01/03/2009

SpiceJet to recruit more pilots soon,

Mumbai: Gurgaon-based no-frill carrier SpiceJet has decided to hire nearly a dozen pilots including foreign commanders, in a fortnight. SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal confirmed the development. He told ET: “We will hire around one dozen more pilots in December including expats,” Mr Aggarwal said. “We have seen expats are more efficient in some cases compared to Indian pilots. The airline has sent back a few Indian pilots due to unsatisfactory results. Local pilots are our first priority, but foreign hands are also welcome in our family,” he added. It is learnt that SpiceJet will pay foreign pilots Rs 7 lakh per month, including accommodation allowance, double of what it offers its Indian pilots.

SpiceJet employs 65-70 expat pilots. SpiceJet needs more pilots as it is increasing capacity. It plans to increase flights by another 20% over the next two months. It plans to double the frequency in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai routes. The daily flights will go up to 120 from the existing 98 in 20 cities by the end of this fiscal. The company has also retracted from its earlier decision of returning three aircraft.

SpiceJet’s market share increased from 9.5% in October to 10.8% in November, while its load factor jumped 4% to around 65%. The low-cost airline’s market share swelled from 12.8% in October to 14.7% in November. Industry experts said SpiceJet has managed to resolve its problems related to cash after the US-based investor WL Ross injected Rs 360 crore into it.

Despite the current economic state, IndiGo looks to the inevitable future, and continues to hire based on demand!
01/01/2009

IndiGo beats headwinds, plans to hire more staff New Delhi: At a time when several domestic airlines are looking to prune their staff strength, the Delhi-based low cost airline, IndiGo, is on the look out for more pilots, cabin attendants, customer service and airport service agents.

“There is no deceleration in our growth plan. You have to take a long-term view, not a 90-day view, of life. We are doing more number of flights now, than a few months ago. We have an aircraft delivery virtually every six weeks for the next few months. So it is only natural that we will need more people,” the newly appointed President, Mr Aditya Ghosh, told Business Line.

The airline, however, refused to specify the number of people it was planning to hire. “It is difficult to quantify the number of people that we need because as we grow, we also enjoy benefits of scale,” Mr Ghosh said. The airline, which started two years ago with a single Airbus A-320 aircraft, currently has a fleet of 19.

The economic slowdown and decline in passenger numbers have forced several airlines to look at pruning costs including deferring delivery of aircraft, cutting back on routes and laying off staff. IndiGo officials claimed that they have been seeing a healthy growth in passenger numbers and had no plans to defer delivery of any of the 100 Airbus it has ordered.