Pilot shortage easing?

Pilots have become an envied breed with plush jobs, 7 figure salaries and lucrative offers! But a shortage of pilots in the past few years has meant a cost burden of upto 5 percent on airlines. Gradually this is now changing.

They are flying high in the Indian skies! Since the past four years, when Indian aviation got new low-cost wings, pilots have been in great demand. On average India had been getting 5 or 6 planes every month. That translates into a requirement of 50 to 60 additional pilots every month. But India has hardly been producing about 200 pilots a year. So airlines have had to bank on expatriates. Now airlines' losses are forcing carriers to cut expansion plans.

After adding 150 planes a year between 2005 and 2007, airlines have added just 50 in the past year.

“Capacity addition has been slow in the past year, " says Kapil Kaul, CEO, CAPA.

Pilots are probably one the highest paid professionals in India with salaries ranging from five lakh rupees a month to over Rs 10 lakh depending on the aircraft they fly and their experience. Over the past 3 years poaching had sent remunerations spiraling. But in the past 12 months salaries have begun to stabilise.

"Salaries have stabilised because pilots now must give 6 months notice to quit,” adds Ajay Singh, Director, SpiceJet.

Experts say that in the next few years there could actually be a dip in salaries as it happened in the US and Britain. Most airlines have introduced their own training programs, the govt has increased the retirement age and eased the norms of getting in, and airlines are in a consolidation mode. All this has eased the pilot shortage in India