New Delhi: Indian carriers may soon have to hire more pilots and crew to comply with a new rule that mandates more rest for flight crew to prevent fatigue, a reason cited for the decade’s worst plane crash in India last year that killed 158 people.
“Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will issue the rules and put it up for consultation anytime now. I think it should be applicable in the next three months,” civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi said, adding the new directives will also tighten control over airline managements. “It will address a number of issue like rest, sleep inertia, fatigue and airline management issues. ”
The civil aviation ministry has cleared the proposal this month, he said.
The plan to reduce pilot fatigue comes after investigations into the fatal crash of Air India Express flight IX-812 in Mangalore on 22 May revealed the flight commander slept through 30% of the flight.
The move will also raise the cost of running airlines as the carriers have to increase the number of pilots and cabin crew for each aircraft. DGCA is preparing the draft guidelines and the details haven’t been made public.
Airlines may need to hire more staff under new safety norms
Pilots with commercial licence jobless
Mumbai: For two years now, his parents have religiously paid Rs 25,000 EMI on a Rs 30-lakh soft loan, to fund the training program for his commercial pilot licence (CPL). It therefore took a measure of gumption for Nitin Mayekar (name changed) to apply for another loan; this one, for Rs 15 lakh. He was convinced that in the current market, a CPL alone would not land him that coveted airline pilot job. Mayekar had to undergo specialized training on an A320 aircraft. Called type rating, it cost over a million rupees.
Till a few years ago, airlines paid for the type-training program of fresh CPL holders whom they recruited as trainee co-pilots. But with about 4,000 jobless CPL holders such as Mayekar, several penny-pinching airlines now call only jet aircraft type-rated pilots.
“A middle-class family can become really poor with one jobless CPL holder in the family,” says Arun Mayekar, Nitin’s father. The family took a Rs 30 lakh loan for his flying training in the US. The son returned in 2009 – at a time when airlines were deep in debt. Indian carriers had stopped recruiting trainee co-pilots-that is, fresh CPL holders -and slowed command training of their co-pilots eligible to be promoted to commanders. “I’m sure there are thousands like me who have ended up shouldering the EMI burden as their child could not get an airline job,” he says.
Mayekar may be right in surmising so, as sources from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) say that over the past three years (till October 31, 2010), a total of 4,513 CPL licences were issued (See Box). In contrast, between 2008 and the end of 2010, airlines in India generated only about 200 co-pilot vacancies. What is worse is that only a few airlines such as Jet Airways present any hope to the jobless, fresh CPL holders. “All the other airlines recruit only type-rated pilots. Even Air India put up that criterion in their trainee co-pilot applications last year,” says Sharada Pai, a widow whose second son, a qualified engineer, earned a CPL from the US in 2008. “Getting a CPL and a type-rating would mean spending about Rs 40-45 lakh,” she adds. Her son is currently employed at a call centre. “My other son has been paying the EMI.”
Even to remain jobless, costs CPL holders money. It pays to keep the licence and the instrument ratings current, an annual exercise. That apart, surprises await them during recruitment. Last year, a low-cost airline charged $400 as written entrance exam fee for trainee co-pilot applicants.
At the DGCA’s Delhi headquarters-the only place to get an Indian pilot licence- every day, an average of four to five CPL licences are issued. By the weekend, the 10,700th CPL licence would be stamped and issued, says a source.
23/02/11 Manju V/Times of India
Labourer’s daughter becomes air hostess, joins Air India
Bhopal: Beating odds stacked heavily against her, a daughter of a labourer has become an international air hostess.
Roshni Sapkal, 22, has become an air hostess with public carrier Air India Express, and is now posted in Mumbai since February 1, her father Prakash Sapkal told PTI today.
Roshni did her schooling from government girls’ higher secondary school at Barkhera and graduation in arts from the government college in Bhopal, said Prakash, who works with the Public Works Department as a daily wage-earner.
“My daughter did her schooling in Hindi medium and studied hard to master English in order to realize her dream of flying,” he said.
Roshni did a course at Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training in Bhopal.
