Only 87 foreign pilots currently employed in India

Only 87 of the approximately 9,000 pilots working with Indian carriers are from foreign countries, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Monday, March 14.

A total of 404 foreign pilots were working in India as of June 10, 2019, according to government data.

“There is no shortage of pilots in the country. However, there is a shortage of commanders on certain types of aircraft and the same is being managed by utilising foreign pilots by issuing Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorization(FATA),” Singh said on Monday, March 14 in his written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Only 87 of the approximately 9,000 pilots working with Indian carriers are from foreign countries, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh.

Currently, there are 87 FATA holders in India and there are around 9,000 pilots employed with various airline operators in India, the minister stated.

Singh said 2,368 pilots were recruited in the country in 2019, 400 were recruited in 2020 and 296 were recruited in 2021. 

Recently Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia said “At present, we need 9,500 pilots…over 40% of pilots go abroad for training.…again there is forex outgo. The training cost of a pilot is around INR 1.5 – INR 2 Crore We’ve to move flying/pilot training here.”

Singh said 2,368 pilots were recruited in the country in 2019, 400 were recruited in 2020 and 296 were recruited in 2021.

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Hoping to make India a global flying training hub, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has announced setting up eight new academies across five airports — Belagavi and Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Jalgaon in Maharashtra, Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, and Lilabari in Assam in July 2020.

India requires an estimated 1,000 pilots annually to meet its traffic growth, as the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted air travel and reduced manpower requirement. Indian pilot training institutes face several challenges, such as sub-optimal fleet size, high rent, old fleet, a lack of an adequate number of trainers, weather-related issues, etc.

Air India has 2,657 cases pending against it in Indian and international courts on matters related to employee service, customer complaints and commercial issues, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Monday, March 14.

Since its disinvestment in 2021, Air India has been under the control of the Tata Group. "The total number of cases pending in Indian courts and international courts against Air India is 2,657,” Singh said in his reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

2,657 open cases against Air India in Indian and international courts

These cases related to issues such as employee service matters, consumer complaints, commercial matters, he said. "These cases are against Air India as a legal entity and will remain with Air India,” Singh said. The minister said the Centre will not deal with the cases against Air India.

N Chandrasekaran appointed as Air India chairman

N Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Sons, has been appointed as the chairman of Air India. The appointment was cleared at a board meeting held by Air India on Monday, March 14.

ALSO READ - N Chandrasekaran to continue with his review of Air India

Tata Sons Chairman, N Chandrasekaran appointed as Air India chairman

General Insurance Corporation former CMD Alice GeeVarghese Vaidyan will be inducted on the airline board as an independent director.

Air India founder J R D Tata remained the airline’s chief for decades after its nationalisation. He was chairman till February 1978 when the Morarji Desai government moved him from the post.

Tata Group had won the bid to acquire the national carrier along with Air India Express and a 50% stake in AISATS in October 2021. The Tata Group officially took over the management of the national airlines in January.

Tata Group officially took over the management of the national airlines in January.

ALSO READ - Day 1 of Tata’s Air India – What do we know so far?

Meanwhile, Air India is on the hunt for a new CEO to replace former Turkish Airlines CEO Ilker Ayci, who resigned before taking charge officially. Ilker Ayci was supposed to take responsibilities as the CEO and Managing Director (MD) of Air India on or before April 1, 2022.

ALSO READ - Amid the security row, Ilker Ayci declines Tata Sons’ offer to be the new CEO of Air India

The IP-based Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) has been commissioned at Chennai airport. Nearly 120 hours before the departure of an international flight, a flight plan is prepared, sent to the origin, destination and airport en route.

From aeronautical to meteorological information, several crucial operational messages are shared among several departments to transport a passenger safely. This new software does all of this seamlessly.

The AMSS will help airport management staff and ATC officials better coordinate with airlines and other airports. The system is also good for the environment as it is entirely paperless. Additionally, pilots being able to plan their flight better will result in significant fuel savings and reduce the chances of delays.

Chennai airport gets IP-based navigation services system

V. Muruganandham, General Manager, Communication and Navigation Systems, Airports Authority of India (AAI), said they had upgraded the system from the old technology to IP-based AMSS because the old system had some inherent limitations and was becoming obsolete.

Earlier, aircraft operators had to physically go to the air-traffic-services block at the airport to get the brief of their flights. Now, using the new system they can do this remotely, Muruganandham added. M Suresh, board member of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) congratulated the team of experts who developed the system.

“A team of experts from Chennai and Kolkata developed this system at a cost of INR 12 lakh. It has been designed with global standards, keeping in mind the specifications required for India. This AMSS is available at other major airports in the country, including Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru.”V. Muruganandham, General Manager, Communication and Navigation Systems, Airports Authority of India (AAI)

AAI officials said before a flight’s departure, the airline had to file a flight plan fed into this system from the departure destination and through a routine directory. It reaches all the airports en route in a standard format designed by International Civil Aviation Organisation.

“Once this plan is done, AMSS sends out this information to the air traffic management automation system, departure clearance system, Airport Command and Control (AOCC) which in turn goes into the display boards for passengers in the terminals,” an official said.

AMSS will help airport management staff and ATC officials better coordinate with airlines and other airports.

This was like a base system for all major airports in the world which helped them stay interconnected. “If I’m filing a flight plan from Chennai to New York, I can just send it via my system and based on routing directories, it will reach New York within seconds,” the official said.

Not just flight plans, the system will have information about navigational facilities such as Instrument Landing System and other systems that guide the aircraft to move in the air.

“Such installations are present across the world and in case some of these facilities are not working, then it will affect the flight and the pilot won’t get navigational information to fly. But this system will provide the pilot with such details on which systems are not working in an airport,” the official said.

Information about the weather conditions from the Meteorological Department is fed into the system round the clock.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Sunday, March 13 said his ministry is working on a policy on the use of small planes and helicopters for expanding regional connectivity.

The minister was addressing a function here to mark the inaugural run of the Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad flight under UDAN - RCS (Ude Desh Kaa Aam Naagrik - Regional Connectivity Service). Regional airline FlyBig is operating the flight. It was the first commercial flight to Gondia from Indore.

"We want that with our policy regional air connectivity should bolster and reach far-flung areas. And for this, a policy for the use of small planes and helicopters is being tailored," Scindia said.

The policy is in the works to expand air connectivity to remote areas - Jyotiraditya Scindia

He said Indore has been connected by air with 21 cities in the last eight months, which has pushed the number of weekly flights flying in and out from Indore to 445 from 308.

He said that alone direct international flight from Madhya Pradesh to Dubai had already been started from Indore, and efforts are on to run a direct flight to Sharjah as well.

According to an earlier statement by FlyBig Airlines chairman and managing director Sanjay Mandviya, the booking of tickets will start from March 1 and will be available both online and at the window.

The first commercial flight operated by flybig lands at Gondia Airport VAGD.

The fare is also very affordable as the services will be run under UDAN RCS (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik- Regional Connectivity Scheme). The fare will be just INR 1,999 for Indore-Gondia or Gondia-Hyderabad travel and the maximum fare would be around INR 2600.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan participated in the function virtually. His wife Sadhana Singh hails from Gondia in Maharashtra. Speaking in Marathi, Chouhan in a lighter vein said, "Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad flight was special for him given that he was the son-in-law of Gondia.

About three out of every four Indians are against a full-fledged reopening of international flights from later this month, as several countries are experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases, showed a survey by a social media platform.

The Localcircles survey received 12,618 responses from citizens residing in 294 districts. Of the respondents, 44% were from the country's top cities. The survey was conducted after the government said regular international flights from India would resume on March 27.

Starting flights from international countries at a time when there is a strong surge in COVID cases in Europe and Asia could pose an imminent danger of a rise in cases of BA 2.2 variant in India.

73% of Indian citizens oppose the resumption of scheduled international flights

The BA 2.2 variant has already reached India, with the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), which conducts genome sequencing of the coronavirus, reporting 3 such cases in Maharashtra, Puducherry and Ladakh.

Based on genome sequencing data, the predominant variant in India currently is BA.2 and globally experts suggest that BA.2 infection does not provide immunity from BA.2.2. The announcement was made after India's Covid cases fell below 5,000 a day and test positivity came under 0.5%.

While several countries opened their skies after the scare over the Omicron-led Covid wave eased, those like Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Australia are seeing hospitalisations due to a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant.

The announcement was made after India's Covid cases fell below 5,000 a day and test positivity came under 0.5%.

About 25% of the respondents backed the resumption of commercial international flights from all countries as planned, according to the survey. Another 41% suggested starting commercial flights only with countries that have a TPR of less than 5%, while 14% put a TPR of under 2% as the condition.

About 18% sought postponement of the decision, while 2% did not have an opinion, according to Localcircles.

"On an aggregate basis, 73% of citizens are against restarting full schedule commercial international flights from March 27, 2022, in light of the BA.2.2 and related mutations," it said in a news release.

In a sign of the priority, the Tatas are giving to their latest acquisition — Air India, — group chairman N Chandrasekaran will personally review the Maharaja’s revival path over Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15 at the airline’s HQ in Delhi.

According to a report published by The Times of India, he is learnt to be taking detailed presentations from AI board members to finalise the roadmap, continuing from where he left off last week.

Outlining Tata’s vision for the airline they founded, Chandra has promised to make “Air India the world-class airline it deserves to be” and “absolutely best in class” in customer service, technology, fleet, network and “best possible hospitality both in flight and off the flight.”

N Chandrasekaran to continue with his review of Air India

All these will require a team of top-notch experts. But the formerly state-run airline’s wait to get an aviation veteran as CEO continues as former Turkish Airlines chairman Ilker Ayci recently “declined” the position of AI MD & CEO.

ALSO READ - Amid the security row, Ilker Ayci declines Tata Sons’ offer to be the new CEO of Air India

A new CEO — who is likely to be finalised shortly — with a proven track record in aviation is expected to put in place a team of professionals.

With regular international flights starting from March 27, people will again have the option of taking one-stops via nearby hubs to fly between India and the rest of the world. The bubble system in place from March 23, 2020, will March 26, 2022, meant fewer flights by foreign airlines.

ALSO READ - India to restart scheduled international flights after 2 years from March 27

DGCA data shows that in the last pre-pandemic quarter, October-December 2019, Indian carriers accounted for 39.2% of international travel to and from India while foreign carriers’ share was 60.8%. Air India (11.5%) and Air India Express's (7.3%) share was 18.8%. On a standalone basis, IndiGo had the highest international market share.

Air India has to quickly become a more attractive option to leverage its main strength of medium/long and ultra-long-haul international direct connectivity

The latest pandemic time DGCA is for July-September 2021 when Indian carriers’ share rose to 48.1% and foreign carriers fell to 51.9%. Air India's (14.5%) and Air India Express's (11.8%) combined share in this period rose by 40% to 26.3%. And on a standalone basis, Air India had the highest international market share.

Air India has to quickly become a more attractive option to leverage its main strength of medium/long and ultra-long-haul international direct connectivity in terms of cabin comfort to prevent foreign airlines from evening its bubble-time passengers away.

In domestic, IndiGo — with a much lower cost base — has close to 55% market share,” said an industry insider.

(With Inputs from The Times of India)