Four domestic Indian carriers phased out 84 foreign pilots in 2017

Four domestic airlines, including Jet Airways and Air India Express, have phased out a total of 84 foreign pilots this year, according to the government.

There were as many as 249 foreign pilots employed by various airlines in the country as of December 1, 2017.

"All the operators/ airlines have been directed to develop their in-house strength to minimise the dependency on expatriate pilots.

"Accordingly, operators train and upgrade the inducted Indian pilots to reduce the number of expatriate pilots and submit the phase out programme to the DGCA on a regular basis," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the regulator.

Air India Express, Alliance Air, Jet Airways and IndiGo have phased out 84 foreign pilots this year, as per data provided by the civil aviation ministry.

Among them, Jet Airways has phased out as many as 52 foreign pilots while Air India Express 13 such pilots. IndiGo and Alliance Air have phased out 15 and 4 foreign pilots, respectively.

The data showed that 249 foreign pilots, as on December 1, have been employed by scheduled, non-scheduled and other operators.

Out of them, IndiGo had 59 foreign pilots, Jet Airways (45), Alliance Air (40) and Air India Express (26).

To a query on whether the ground staff of all airlines are subjected to mental faculty/ psychological tests on a regular basis, Sinha said, "no specific guidelines have been issued in this regard by the ministry or DGCA".

The DGCA has regulations that provide for adequate training of persons who are engaged in passenger handling, he added.