Jet plans to hire 100 more expat pilots despite DGCA deadline

Mumbai: Jet Airways is planning to hire around 100 foreign pilots for its wide body Boeing fleet and has already approached several hiring firms for this, even as the aviation regulator has set a December 2013 deadline for phasing out expat pilots. “Jet is planning to hire up to 100 foreign pilots. The airline requires these pilots for the wide-body Boeing 777s,” sources familiar with the development told PTI here. The airline, however, did not respond to the text message on the issue. Interestingly, Jet’s demand for foreign pilots comes at a time when the regulator DGCA’s deadline for phasing out all expat pilots is nine months away, they said. Also, the airline during the post Q2 earnings, analysts concall last November, had said it was aiming to reduce the number of expat pilots by almost half by the the end of this fiscal.
28/03/13 Zee News