In an attempt to prune costs and navigate itself out of the turbulence in the Indian aviation sector, the nation's largest private airline, Jet Airways, has decided to terminate contracts of 72 of its high-cost expatriate pilots.
The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline sent notices to a section of its expat pilots last week. Nikos Kardassis, CEO, Jet Airways, confirmed the development to ETand said this was necessitated by a curtailed monsoon schedule and also the availability of pilots to tap from the local pool.
"We are reducing the level of operations for the monsoon season (as we do every year) and speeding up the process of training qualified Indian pilots from co-pilots to captains. We are also looking to recruit qualified Indian pilots available in the market at the moment," Kardassis said in a response to a query from ET.
The sacking of expat pilots, who till recently were a coveted resource for domestic airlines, is said to be the first and the biggest in Indian aviation. However, the firing exercise is unlikely to create a political storm as it involves only expats.
There are about 500 foreign pilots employed by Indian airlines, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said in a recent statement based on government data. He said Jet Airways employed the highest number of expats, with 183 pilots working for it. The number of expats hired by domestic airlines has gone up considerably from 384 in 2010. Jet topped the list even then with 111 expat pilots.
The government had allowed airlines to hire foreign air crew to meet the shortage of pilots, especially commanders. But due to agitation by Indian pilots for higher emoluments, it asked domestic airlines to phase out expats by July 31, 2011. It later extended the deadline to December 31, 2013.
Budget carrier SpiceJet relies heavily on expat pilots, who are said to enjoy a much higher compensation compared with Indian pilots for flying its Bombardier Q400 aircraft. There are hardly any Indian commanders available for flying these aircraft.
The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline sent notices to a section of its expat pilots last week. Nikos Kardassis, CEO, Jet Airways, confirmed the development to ETand said this was necessitated by a curtailed monsoon schedule and also the availability of pilots to tap from the local pool.
"We are reducing the level of operations for the monsoon season (as we do every year) and speeding up the process of training qualified Indian pilots from co-pilots to captains. We are also looking to recruit qualified Indian pilots available in the market at the moment," Kardassis said in a response to a query from ET.
The sacking of expat pilots, who till recently were a coveted resource for domestic airlines, is said to be the first and the biggest in Indian aviation. However, the firing exercise is unlikely to create a political storm as it involves only expats.
There are about 500 foreign pilots employed by Indian airlines, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said in a recent statement based on government data. He said Jet Airways employed the highest number of expats, with 183 pilots working for it. The number of expats hired by domestic airlines has gone up considerably from 384 in 2010. Jet topped the list even then with 111 expat pilots.
The government had allowed airlines to hire foreign air crew to meet the shortage of pilots, especially commanders. But due to agitation by Indian pilots for higher emoluments, it asked domestic airlines to phase out expats by July 31, 2011. It later extended the deadline to December 31, 2013.
Budget carrier SpiceJet relies heavily on expat pilots, who are said to enjoy a much higher compensation compared with Indian pilots for flying its Bombardier Q400 aircraft. There are hardly any Indian commanders available for flying these aircraft.
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Jet Airways' move to do away with such a large number of expat pilots stems from the surplus of pilots in the market, courtesy its one-time rival Kingfisher Airlines.
Huge No. of KF Pilots Available
The Vijay Mallya-promoted airline has drastically curtailed operations since November last year and is down to a fleet of 20 aircraft compared with 64 around nine months ago.
