Indian Budget Airline Desperate To Hire Experienced Expat Pilots

An Indian budget carrier is now recruiting expat pilots as well as Indian pilots about to lose their jobs with financially troubled Jet Airways.

India’s budget airline IndiGo is taking advantage of its rival’s financial difficulties by offering jobs to pilots about to lose their jobs as well as to expatriate flyers looking to live and work in India. The budget airline has been busy expanding its routes as well as its fleet of aircraft and now needs qualified and experienced pilots for its over 200 aircraft.

The fleet is composed of A320 and A321 planes, and new IndiGo routes include the connection of more Indian cities to Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, the UK, Vietnam and China. Pilots who’re working with Jet Airways at the present time are being offered guaranteed jobs along with compensation for overdue salaries not yet received from the full-service carrier. A dearth of suitably qualified and experienced pilots has been the norm in the Indian aviation sector for some years, during which time capacity expansion has been necessary in order to meet rising passenger demand. Last month, IndiGo was forced to announce the permanent cancellation of 30 daily flights due to a chronic shortage of pilots.

At the same time as flights are being cancelled, ticket prices are rising due to issues with Mumbai’s network of runways as well as the cancellations themselves. It’s possible frequent flyers on business trips won’t quite see an obvious link between the air fare increases and the reasons given, even although the main runway at Mumbai will now close daily between 11a.m. and 5 p.m. for essential repairs and maintenance. At present, the industry is being hit with a double whammy of more demand and less capacity, with the dearth of trained, experienced pilots not helping.