Aviation downturn: Pilots feel the heat

Mumbai: The recurring nightmare that haunts pilots around the world every decade when the cyclic airline industry goes through a downturn has come back to hit the Indian shores.
It started two months ago with airlines in US effecting a wave of pilot job cuts. This week, keeping in tune with this global trend brought about by rise in fuel prices, Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet asked about 30 of its pilots to leave. “Out of these, 14 are first officers and the rest expatriate commanders with thousands of hours on Boeing 737,” said a source. Sources said that another low-cost airline will also be issuing termination notices to a section of its pilots in the coming days. The scale is much smaller in India. Last month, United Airlines decided to cut 950 pilots job and recently it was American Airlines which announced that it would be laying off 200 of its pilots.
Surajit Banerjee, vice-president, HR, SpiceJet said that while 14 trainee first officers have been told to leave, a number cannot be put for expat pilots.
Whether the number of expatriates will be reduced in the coming weeks would also depend on the contract conditions. “Some have accumulated leave, others contracts would be expiring,” he said. SpiceJet employs about 65-70 expat pilots. Sources said that the expat pilots who were on leave have been asked not to return.
The cut in pilot jobs is a fall out of airlines decision to cut down on the number of flights. All airlines, including SpiceJet, had brought about a 10-15% cut in the number of flights they operate to keep up with the rising fuel prices.
Aviation analysts said the good news is that Indian pilots’ job market won’t see the kind of bloodshed that is on in the US.
07/08/08 Manju V/Times of India