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A cut above Expat pilots are an expensive choice: they are paid 40 percent more than Indians and enjoy tax-free salaries
A cut above Expat pilots are an expensive choice: they are paid 40 percent more than Indians and enjoy tax-free salaries, Photo: AFP

FOREIGN HAND IN THE SKY

For how long will policy myopia give reprieve to airlines from employing expat pilots, asks Pradyot Lal

Only the other day, Mahesh Sharma, the minister of state for civil aviation, told the Rajya Sabha that the Central government is not planning to hire foreign pilots even when there is a felt and urgent need for about 200 personnel.

The rulebook may be clear about phasing them out, but necessity is forcing the country to back down on the bar on foreign pilots.

That is one convenient way to look at the complicated picture. More germane perhaps is the fact that the CBI is currently probing specific cases of hiring of foreign pilots for Air India through empanelled agencies, which are not in tandem with the airline and siphon off a large amount of money with the help of the bureaucracy.

The inquest has been launched two years after Yashwant Shenoy, a self-proclaimed public-spirited individual, lodged a complaint regarding the racket.

At a time when India is facing a severe shortage of homegrown pilots, it was admitted in Parliament six months ago that as many as 277 foreign pilots are employed by various airlines in the country. According to official figures, Jet Airways employs the most number of foreign pilots (121), followed by IndiGo (45). As many as 74 expat pilots work for non-scheduled carriers.

It was admitted that there is an endemic and recurrent shortage of commanders (pilots or pilots-in-command). The reasons are twofold: the growth in the aviation industry and the induction of new aircrafts. Willy nilly, action plans to make up for this deficiency are officially made to cover the shortage of pilots and validation of foreign pilots is done as per rule 45 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.

Homegrown pilots, who are inducted into airlines and are eligible to become pilots in command (pic) as per the policy of the airlines, are being trained to eventually take over from pilots. As a follow up, cases of Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation (FATA) pilots are processed on the basis of information furnished by each airline with the phase-out programme of expat pilots.

According to aviation sources, the government has restricted the issue of FATA up to 31 December 2016.

Expat pilots are an expensive choice: they are paid some 40 percent more than locals, have tax-free salaries and enjoy a four-month holiday every year.

All this breeds heartburn and disaffection among homegrown pilots even when it is a fact that some 60 percent of them flaunt degrees from foreign institutes.

The number of foreign pilots employed by the Indian aviation industry keeps varying, given the differing financials of the carriers.

Part of the salary paid to foreign pilots is typically in dollars. With the weakening of the rupee, the expense of employing foreign pilots has swelled. That has added to the pressure on the carriers at a time when other costs such as fuel and airport charges have also climbed. Not surprisingly, most Indian carriers are in the red.

However, the complete replacement of foreign pilots with local hires is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Airlines are continuing to employ foreigners because there is a shortage of locally trained senior pilots, and with certain specific airlines rooting for foreign pilots, the situation is quite complicated on the ground.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had set a deadline for airlines to phase out all expat pilots by the end of 2013, extending an earlier deadline of the end of 2010, but those deadlines have come and gone.

Insiders say that it will be impossible for Indian carriers to meet the DGCA’s deadline, unless airlines cut their flights and ground some planes, because of the lack of trained local pilots. He said the foreign pilots employed by Jet have flying experience of at least five years. Some Indian pilots are employed as co-pilots as several hours of flying experience are required to become a commander of a passenger flight. He said that the phasing out of foreign pilots will take at least a couple of years as local pilots gain the necessary experience.

The civil aviation ministry almost mechanically keeps extending deadlines for phasing out foreign pilots, with airlines unable to train a sufficient number of locals for the commander’s post. The move, in turn, benefits carriers such as Jet Airways, which usually hire about 70 foreign pilots for its fleet of Boeing 777s.

In fact, the situation is so dire that Jet Airways plans to wet-lease foreign pilots from Turkish Airlines for a year. The airline had reduced the number of foreign pilots on its rolls and terminated their contracts before the end of term to save costs. The principle behind hiring foreign pilots was that there is a shortage of homegrown commanders. But as many have pointed out, there are so many Kingfisher pilots without work. Why then is the need to hire more foreign pilots?

The huge dichotomy is that there is no clear-cut policy on the issue. There are hundreds of Indian pilots who are unemployed and their interests are not protected. There have been many heart-rending stories of how a promising career of a pilot has not taken off given the vagaries of the market, but the induction of new aircraft and new technology and the sheer growth of the aviation sector negates subjective pulls and pressures.

letters@tehelka.com


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