Mumbai: Stung by mass departure of trained pilots, airlines have come up with a way to beat the attrition. They now plan to set up flying schools of their own.
Fat pay-cheques, frills galore and the glamour of the cool uniforms – these are enough factors to entice sharp youngsters to a career as a pilot. But with too many hunters looking for a kill, airlines are finding it a tough task to keep their cockpits occupied.
Says Warwick Brady, COO, Air Deccan, "There's a huge dearth of pilots in the country, even forcing us to look for expatriates. Only if the Government approved."
And the solution, apart from poaching, seems to be training.
Says Captain G R Gopinath, Chairman, Air Deccan, "We are setting up a training institute in Chennai. We have already ordered for 2 flight training simulators."
Jet Airways is also not far behind. Says Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways, "Preliminary business plans are on. In fact, we have short-listed a location too. But we cannot reveal it to you yet."
With 300 new airplanes set to hit the Indian skies over the next 3 to 4 years, the number of wanted pilots will be in the range of 3000. So, any news of in-house supplies of pilots makes the ministry happy.
Says Praful Patel, Civil Aviation Minister, "We need more of these institutes coming up in the country. Why should our boys go abroad and study after paying huge sums of money?"
Speedy training and the economy of learning to fly in the country itself - wannabe pilots have never had it better and airline experts predict that the time is not far away when Indian flight training institutes would start catering to the growing international demand for pilots too.
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