Key Points
On the one hand, there is a serious shortage of trained and experienced pilots; and on the other, is a long roster of licensed but inadequately skilled pilots, many of whom have even jettisoned their dreams to fly to take up ground staff duties at airports, said several people directly connected with the aviation sector...
Many a time domestic flight training academies are not able to meet the demand for experienced and type-rated pilots for the new batches of aircraft that aviation companies have requisitioned in the recent years, said industry experts...
Besides, several aviation academies are not able to complete the commercial pilot licence (CPL) within the stipulated time (15-24 months); often aspirants take as much as four years to get a basic CPL due to inadequate number of trainer aircraft and training simulators, said officials from training academies...
"A commercial pilot licence should take about two years but often it gets extended - sometimes up to 4-5 years - as trainee pilots must wait for a chance to fly due to inadequate number of aircraft," said retired Air Cmde RV Kumar, director for quality and safety at Hercules Aviation Training School...
However, the head of a North India-based flight simulation training company said: "The problem of unemployment of domestic pilots - trained in independent local flying clubs - will intensify as the bigger airlines open their own flight training academies and prefer to employ those trained under their cadet training programmes.".
