Miles to Go

Save for a handful of private entrepreneurs, private airlines and the aviation industry have not taken adequate measures to train commercial pilots, relying instead on hiring pilots from other airlines or abroad.

In the past five years, the civil aviation sector in India has grown rapidly. According to sources, over and above the existing holdings, airlines would need to acquire 800 aircraft over the next decade to cater to growth in both passenger and cargo traffic. This boom, if sustained, will generate a requirement to train a large number of commercial pilots. Recently, Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel informed the Rajya Sabha that there was a shortage of about 1,000 pilots in the civil airlines and added that at the present rate of growth, 5,000 pilots for scheduled and 1,000 for non-scheduled and private operations would be required in the next five years. While the government has taken some steps to enhance domestic training capacity, it remains to be seen what the private sector has done to address this vital issue.

Absence of private initiative

Absence of private industry participation can be traced back to 1953 when the airline industry in India was nationalised. Aimed at thwarting possible competition, decades of state control proved to be an impediment to the growth of civil aviation in India. Even with implementation of the ‘Open Sky’ policy in 1991, growth of private aviation was not stimulated. Barring two, attempts by several others to enter the fray soon ran aground. The prevailing circumstances were not conducive for Foreign Direct Investment.

Pilot training in India

Training of commercial pilots in India has for long been limited to the rather meager resources of government-owned flying clubs that provided freshers with low experience levels. The Indian Air Force provided a few highly experienced pilots in the medium age group to Air India on deputation and subsequent absorption. A few affluent individuals, trained abroad at their own expense, were also available to the airlines. Subsequently, the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi (IGRUA), whose foundation stone was laid by the Late Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on November 7, 1985, became the primary source of pilots to the two state-owned airlines.

Under the system of training provided by IGRUA, it takes about two to three years of ground and flying training before one becomes eligible to fly as a commercial pilot. The course fee being fairly high, the cost of flying itself is more than Rs 20 lakh. Thus, training of pilots is time consuming and expensive. Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE) Inc., which has joined hands with IGRUA to improve its infrastructure and capacity, estimates the cost of training to be anywhere between $60,000 (Rs 25.7 lakh) to $100,000 (Rs 43 lakh). Obtaining a Commercial Pilot’s Licence (CPL) is not the end of the road for a trainee pilot. Further training is required in the form of Simulator Training, Multi-engine Endorsement, Instrument Rating, Refresher Courses, Ground Training for prospective Flying Instructors, Licence Renewal tests, Licence Endorsement checks and so on. All these require elaborate and expensive infrastructure. No wonder then that save for a handful of private educational entrepreneurs, private airlines and the aviation industry have not taken adequate measures to train commercial pilots to meet their requirements relying instead on hiring pilots from other airlines or from abroad.