Demand for pilots at all-time high

With the demand for pilots at an all-time high, more and more youngsters are training to take to the skies, and nowhere more than in Hyderabad, which is home to both government and private aviation academies.
The boom in the airline industry has triggered a huge shortage of pilots in India.
There is an estimated demand for 94,000 pilots in the next five years in the Asia-pacific region.
The director general of civil aviation has eased the qualification norms to get a commercial pilot’s license.
For instance, the number of mandatory flying hours has been reduced from 250 to 200. Only those with 6 by 6 eyesight could get a pilot’s job earlier. But now, vision that can be corrected to 6 by 6, can qualify.
”Anybody with a CPL now has every chance to be selected as a pilot. There was a time when people with 1500-2000 hours of flying also found it difficult to get jobs,” said L Kumaran, former advisor of Jet Airways Training.
There are, however, some concerns about youngsters flying high too soon.
”The maturity level of an 18-year-old is relatively less than for a 24-year-old. Their level of understanding and seriousness is less. But because of the demand, they are forced to mature and handle emergencies as a pilot sometimes even at 18,” said Captain Vinod, a simulator instructor.
23/05/07 Radhika Iyer/NDTV.com