Airlines India, Indian Airlines

As many as 460 foreign nationals are working as commanders in flights by domestic carriers to meet the shortage of pilots, Minister of state for Civil Aviation Praful Patel informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
In a written reply, he said the government has decided to upgrade the capacity of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademy from 40 to 100 cadets a year and has set up a new flying Training Institute at Gondia in Maharashtra.

Besides, it has also conditionally increased the age limit for pilots to 65 years for exercising the privileges of their licences for commercial transport operations under prescribed conditions, he said.

Further, he said aircraft operators both scheduled and non-scheduled are permitted to employ foreign pilots as commanders to train Indian co-pilots so as to enable them being upgraded as Commanders.

However, Patel said whenever both the Commander and Co-pilot in a flight are of foreign origin, they are required to carry an Indian trainee pilot on board for exposing the latter to the line oriented flying training.

Replying to another question, Patel said the Aeronautical Society of India has recommended constitution of a National Aeronautic Commission though no decision has been taken by the government in this regard so far.

The Minister informed the Upper House that a total of 1,147 flights are being operated by Indian carriers on daily basis.

The 12 airlines are: Air India Limited (37), Air India Charters (07), Indian Air Lines (58), Alliance Air (15), Jet Airways (55), Sahara Airlines (29), Deccan Aviation Pvt Ltd (33), Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (15), Spicejet ltd (six), Paramount Airwaysd Pvt Ltd (2), Blue Dart Aviation Ltd Cargo (07), and Go Airlines (India) Pvt Ltd (3).

To a question on delay of flights, he said 58.55 per cent Indian Airlines flights were on time during the last three months (April-June).

Of the 41.45 per cent delays and cancellation, 2.86 per cent were due to commercial operations, engineering, ground support, surface transport, stores related reasons, 2.30 per cent due to inclement weather, airport facilities etc, and the remaining 36.29 per cent were due to consequential delays.

About complaints regarding functioning of private airlines, Patel said they were regarding missing/lost baggage, refund of tickets in case of delays/cancellations, denial of facilities like wheel chair, meals/snacks in case of delayed flights, etc.

AirAsia Bhd Thursday received the air services licence from the Transport Ministry to enable the low-cost carrier to officially start its domestic flight in Sarawak and Sabah beginning Tuesday.

The air services licence is for Flying Asian Express (FAX), a wholly-owned company of AirAsia, which will operate its services to 41 destinations.

The licence was given to FAX Chief Executive Officer Raja Mohamed Azmi Raja Mohamed Razali by Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy in a simple ceremony at the minister’s office, here.

Chan said the licence was given to FAX after the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) had given its approval.

FAX, which will be based in Miri Airport, can now start its operation with focus to interior areas of Sarawak for a period of five years using seven Fokker 50A aircraft and two twin otter, he said.

This could have been one of the worst air disasters in recent years. An Air France Cargo and an Air India plane were on a collision course on one of Delhi airport’s runways on Saturday morning. The alert Air-India pilot aborted take-off at the last moment, saving the day and the lives of over 100 passengers and the crew.

The incident took place at 6.40 a.m. on runway 2910. An Air France Cargo plane from Paris had landed on the runway and was rolling towards the taxiway. Before the aircraft could vacate the runway, the ATC cleared Air-India’s flight 746 for take-off. The flight had landed from Dubai and was headed to Lucknow with some 100 passengers.

Sources said the Air France Cargo aircraft was yet to reach the end of the runway when the Air-India flight was asked by the ATC to take off. The aircraft came on to the runway and stepped up its throttle when its pilot spotted the Air France plane.

“The Air-India pilot abandoned take-off. An inquiry has been ordered,” said a spokesperson for the Delhi International Airport Limited.

Officials described the escape as providential. “The pilot aborted the flight at the right moment. It would have been difficult to stop the aircraft if it had gathered momentum,” said an official.

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) has ordered an inquiry into the incident. The report is to be submitted by Monday, the spokesperson said. This will be followed by a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) inquiry. The DGCA is the body responsible for aviation security in the country.

Sources said it was “clearly the ATC’s fault”. At the Delhi airport, there are two frequencies each for the two runways — a ground frequency and an ATC frequency. One air traffic controller mans each frequency. In the present case, there was no overlap. Both the aircraft were on the same frequency and handled by the same traffic controller. “Two different traffic controllers may have issued the instructions. But even this is unpardonable,” said an official. Was it because of inexperience? The Airports Authority of India had recently inducted a batch of fresh traffic controllers.

In a move that has ramifications across India’s booming aviation sector, the government has extended the tenure of foreign pilots from one to three years. This will temporarily help tide over the crisis of pilot shortage.

“India’s dependency on foreign pilots,” says Kanu Gohain, D-G, DGCA, “will continue till such time as Indian pilots achieve type rating in adequate numbers.”

According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), India has 256 aircraft with around 2,100 pilots. Over 300 are estimated to be foreign commanders. In the next five years, India would need an additional 2,500-3,000 pilots. Of these, over 70% will have to be foreign pilots.

Except for China and India, emerging aviation markets, most other countries, especially US and Europe, have been hard hit after 9/11. Airlines have slashed jobs, leading to unemployment. As a result, pilots are flying in from France, Nigeria, Bolivia, Romania, Uzbekistan…to make hay while the sun shines here.

“China and India together have resulted in an almost 20% growth in per hourly costs of pilots abroad,” says Kapil Kaul, CEO, Indian Subcontinent and Middle East, CAPA.

Airlines are naturally hailing the government’s move. Siddhanth Sharma, CEO, SpiceJet, says airlines can now be sure expats won’t leave in a hurry. “The process of inducting an expat pilot takes 1-2 months.

A longer tenure means we don’t need to do most of the government formalities again and again. They too can bring families. This would work out cheaper for us also,” he says.

Experts say India needs a strategic planning document to understand the demand and supply of pilots over the next decade. “Human resources are almost forgotten in India’s aviation growth, especially skilled ones such as pilots and engineers,” says Kaul.

And that’s something pilot unions are carping about too. “How many airlines have a concrete plan to phase out these expats? Increasing their tenure would block commandership for our co-pilots. Let expats join as co-pilots,” says a source.

Capt. G R Gopinath, Air Deccan, says this move would help those building an airline but not finding qualified personnel to run it. “So even if they are from Vietnam or Brazil, we will take them. If our software engineers can work abroad, why can’t expat pilots work here?” he asks.

This move, says an A-I spokesman, would alleviate the shortage of experienced pilots to fly the airline’s new B-777s and B-737-800s. “It would help generate enough co-pilots and commanders over the next few years.”

But won’t it reduce job opportunities for pilots here? “At present, no,” says Gohain. With our aviation industry growing at 25%, the demand for Indian pilots will be huge over the next decade, says Kaul.

Most of these expats are joining as commanders where the shortage is crucial. The salaries offered to them are industry’s best: about $8,000-10,000 per month.

Airlines will authorize their ground service agencies to provide passengers with drinks, food and compensation for delayed flights that are the airlines’ fault.

The agencies do not need to ask airlines for approval first, which will save time in serving passengers who might otherwise be kept waiting for hours.

If flights are postponed to the next day, the Beijing Capital International Airport will keep the air conditioning and lights on for passengers who choose to spend the night in the terminals instead of a hotel. The airlines will also provide blankets.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) authorized the measures to help reduce flight delays and improve service.

Another measure requires that the airlines provide staff to handle the passengers’ arrangements regarding hotels and food.

A Chinese newspaper recently reported an incident in which a domestic airline assigned a woman and a man to share a hotel room after their flight was postponed to the next morning.

The passengers were total strangers, and the woman refused the arrangement. Angry passengers who heard about the incident messed up the whole hotel, the report said.

Flight delays have been common since June because of frequent thunderstorms. There have been a number of incidents in which angry passengers attacked airline employees, CAAC said in a release.

In the first half of July, at least 2,000 flights to and from Capital International Airport have been delayed because of thunderstorms.

“We have made an emergency plan to deal with the large scale of flight delays,” Ma Ruzhuang, an airport spokesman, said in a phone interview. “Our airport command centre will gather airlines, air traffic control, weather and other relevant departments in 20 minutes.”