Air-India to groom graduates into pilots

Mumbai: Air-India (A-I) has decided to identify 200-300 graduates from across India, and send them to reputed international pilot training institutes to procure commercial pilot's licence (CPL), either fully or partially at the company's expense.
On an average, it costs around Rs 15-16 lakh to obtain a CPL and the airline will have to spend an additional Rs 15-20 lakh to train them on its aircraft.
“We will recruit graduates having engineering or science background and send them out for training to make them A-I pilots,” said A-I CMD V Thulasidas. The airline plans to invite tenders for tie-ups with international training schools soon.
Currently, there are 650 pilots in A-I and its subsidiary Air-India Express. However, A-I Express alone has a shortage of around 35 pilots. With its fleet expansion plans, A-I would require 750 pilots by 2008-09.
Normally, airlines recover training costs for pilots from their salary over a period of time. A-I is, however, yet to work out the modalities of financing the scheme and the terms of the bond between the candidates and the carrier.
10/05/06 Sagar Malviya & Neelasri Barman/Financial Express

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