Indian carriers flying abroad to hone talent

New Delhi: Indian carriers are looking at foreign skies not just to hire expat pilots, but also to groom their own talent. More and more airlines are tying up with foreign training institutes to train their pilots.
Kingfisher Airlines has an agreement with California-based American School of Aviation and Phoenix-based Sabena Flight Academy. IndiGo recently got in touch with Canada-based CAE
while SpiceJet has a tie-up with United Aviation, which sends its students to Philippines for pilot training.
Some 150 pilots are trained every year by 35 flying schools across India whereas the demand is for at least 500 pilots a year. Says Kingfisher Airlines executive vice-president Hitesh Patel: “While it takes two years to complete pilot training in India, overseas it takes only nine months to a year.”
At Kingfisher airlines, the training procedure goes like this. Students are first screened who are then trained at American School of Aviation and Sabena Flight Academy as per Kingfisher curriculum. “We are also in talks with an Australia-based flying school. If each school churns 15 pilots a year, our growth target will be met,” he adds. The airline also reimburses a part of student’s fee after completion of the course.
SpiceJet plans to recruit around 12-15 cadet pilots each month for the next one year. Agreeing with the trend, IndiGo CEO Bruce Ashby says: “Till the time Indian pilot training academies begin churning out enough qualified pilots, airlines in India will seek pilots trained abroad.”
26/04/07 Vishakha Talreja/Economic Times

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