The number of pilots with commercial pilot licenses has increased in India over the last five years even as airlines have hired more number of foreign pilots during the same period, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Replying to an unstarred question by BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Puri said the number of Commercial Pilot License (CPL) and Type Rated Pilot License holders had been increasing over the past five years. In the year 2015 the number of CPLs issued was 394 and it rose to 659 in the year 2018. For the year 2016 and 2017 the number of CPLs issued were 458 and 593 respectively. In 2019 a total of 313 CPLs were issued till May 31.
The type rating issued on pilot licenses in the year 2015 the number of endorsements were 1521 and it rose to 2611 in the year 2018.
In his reply Puri said that the number of foreign pilots employed by aviation compes over the last five years also rose from 280 in the year 2015 to 324 in the year 2018. In 2019 upto the month of June a total of 404 foreign pilots were employed.
Puri also said to overcome the shortage of pilots, all the schedule and non-schedule airlines have been advised to develop their own strength to reduce the dependancy of foreign pilots.
"Accordingly, airlines train their pilots to upgrade them as pilot in command/commanders to reduce the dependency on foreign pilots," the minister said.
This was in reply to Rudy's question whether the government will establish a system to develop a homegrown pool of commercial pilots who war type rated so that the dependency on expatriate pilots is minimised.
( With inputs from ANI )