Expat pilots land in India for jobs

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Mumbai: A year ago Romania's Captain Hirjoba Traian was flying with Tarom Air in Bucharest, but when an agent offered him a job with a low-cost airline in India he promptly took up the offer.

Trained pilots are on the most wanted list in India's rapidly-expanding aviation industry.

Thanks to high salaries and decent working conditions, an increasing number of expatriates are making a beeline for the country.

Says Captain Traian, "The market in India permits a good payment and my broker assured me of a high salary here, which is the reason why I came to India."

If a pilot earns $7,000 to $14,000 in Europe, US or Australia, he makes between $8,000 and $15,000 in India.

Top that up with perks - stay in five-star hotels and conveyance to and from home - and the offer is extremely lucrative.

Says CMD, Air-India, V Thulasidas, "Wherever there are unemployed pilots abroad, they will be attracted by job offers from not just Air-India, but all airlines in India, which are recruiting expatriates now. What is important for us is, not an expatriate or an Indian, but just the fact that we need some more pilots and we are not getting them in India."

With the sole exception of Indian Airlines, all airlines in India have foreign pilots.

• Jet Airways has nearly 111 such pilots.

• Air Deccan has 112

• Air-India has 40

• Sahara, Kingfisher and GoAir have 14 each and SpiceJet seven.

Against the current supply of only 1,200 pilots India will require over 2,000 pilots by 2010.

Executive Deputy President, Kingfisher Airlines, Sudhir Goyal, "This trend is likely to continue till we are able to have a sufficiently large pool of our own pilots. And at the pace at which that is happening, compared to the pace at which the industry is growing, I suspect it will take us four to five years."

India's aviation industry is growing at the rate of twenty-five per cent, something that is leading to creation of plenty of employment opportunities across the sector, but the scarcity of pilots has led airlines to hire foreign pilots.