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Rajya Sabha
The Government is taking up various measures to overcome the shortage of pilots being faced in the civil aviation sector:
· Capacity of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi(IGRUA) is being increased and the training facilities being upgraded to train more pilots.
· An additional flying training institute is being set up by the Government at Gondia, Maharashtra.
· The total flying requirement for issue of Commercial Pilots License (CPL) has been reduced from 250 hrs. to 200 hrs.
· Age of pilots who can operate commercial flights has been increased from 60-61 years.
This information was given by Shri Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation in the Rajya Sabha today. The Minister also said in the Rajya Sabha that flights in the North Eastern Region are being affected due to shortage of pilots in Alliance Air
At present Air India (including Air India Express) has a shortage of 118 pilots whereas Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Indian Airlines has a shortage of 40 pilots. Air India/Alliance Air are in the process of recruiting additional pilots to fill up the vacancies through open advertisements in leading newspapers, campus recruitment from IGRUA at frequent intervals and foreign recruitment agencies.
Air India has recruited 27 foreign pilots on contract during the last three years to overcome this shortage. Foreign pilots are inducted purely on contract basis for a period of one year.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also grants permission for opening of flying training academies in the country, if they meet the requirements as laid down by DGCA in its Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR). At present there are 39 Flying Training Institutes (FTI) of which 27 are covered under the subsidy scheme of Government of India and 11 are privately owned.
The Government’s attention has also been drawn to the “poaching of pilots” amongst airlines which is a direct fall out of pilot shortage. Meetings were held in the Ministry of Civil Aviation with a view to finding out the solution. Airlines were asked to finalize the code of conduct amongst them to ensure that flights were not suddenly disrupted causing immense inconvenience to passengers. The Minister has informed the Rajya Sabha that no code of conduct could be finalized by the airlines.
MC/GK
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