DGCA won’t review 1-year extension to foreign pilots

The spotlight on expatriate pilots is unlikely to fade away in a hurry.

Amid unconfirmed reports of Air India looking to remove foreign pilots from its rolls within a year, director general of civil aviation (DGCA) Nasim Zaidi told DNA on Sunday he had no plans to revisit the one-year extension granted to such pilots recently.

“The government has already given a year’s extension to foreign pilots till July 2011 and it won’t be reviewed,” he said.

Licences of all expatriate pilots employed across Indian airlines were due to expire this July but the deadline was extended by a year in April after request from airlines, which cited shortage of type-rated pilots (those who have flown a particular type of aircraft).

Interestingly, just two days before the tragic crash in Mangalore, DGCA had put up a circular on its website on requirements for validation of licences for foreign flight crew.

Zaidi explained that apart from other stringent requirements for airlines wanting to employ foreign pilots, the circular made it mandatory for all such pilots to undergo medical tests in Indian conditions - something the pilots were exempt from earlier.

DGCA has sought feedback on the circular from all airlines by June 2, but after the Mangalore crash it remains to be seen whether the licence validation requirements are made stricter.

Meanwhile, Air India officials pointed out that despite the opposition from Indian pilots to the airline employing foreigners, the national carrier was not likely to phase out expatriates anytime soon.

“Foreign pilots operate the medium-haul Boeing 777, besides AI Express 737-800 aircraft. If all foreign pilots are phased out by next year, how will we operate the 787s, which are due then? We don’t have type-rated 787 pilots,” the officials said.

They said about 130 foreign pilots were working for Air India. Foreign pilots are required to have [among other skills] an accident and incident-free record, with no history of licence suspension, for license validation in India.

DCGA does not consider foreign aircrew temporary authorisation, except to overcome shortage of type-rated pilots.