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| Get Off To A Flying Start - Commercial Pilots Licence |
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| Looking for a job that pays you a kings ransom to gallivant around the world? get your commercial pilots licence (cpl) |
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Gone are the days when a bunch of pilots could hold the entire administration of the national carrier to ransom, because their demands (for yet more salary and perks) were not being met. And two to three years down the line, the short supply of trained pilots will become a story of the past, as the sector begins to respond to the increased need for trained manpower.
Start now
However, if you are already a CPL-holder, now is the time to make a killing. According to Sudhakar Nair, VP (HR), SpiceJet, one of the countrys low-cost private carriers, by the end of 2005, there will be eight private airlines in the market: Jet, Sahara, SpiceJet, Kingfisher, Air Deccan, Go Air, Indigo and Paramount, with the possibility of a ninth one promoted by the Maharaja of Mysore, also looming large. There are already about 160 commercial aircrafts in
operation, implying a functional strength of 1,500 pilots on commercial routes. This is a very small number to go round when new carriers take to the skies, so the shortfall will be met with either poaching from rival carriers or an active induction of expats, till supply finally catches up with demand for additional pilots and cabin crew to man the new fleet. We have fewer home-trained pilots, one because the training is expensive and two because there were very few jobs before the era of the open sky policy. "Earlier, no one ventured into this field, unless he or she had a brother in Air India or an uncle in the Aviation Ministry. Today with the situation being reversed, there is a serious dearth of Commercial Pilots as well as institutes to train them," laments Nair. The consequence is a ludicrous round of musical chairs, as pilots continue to migrate (sometimes enmass) to organisations where they see faster growth prospects for themselves. The growth can be read either in promotion from First Officer (the second man in the cockpit) to Captain status or from Classics (Boeing 200) to New Generation machines.
Making a killing
So, if you earn your stripes (i.e. your Commercial Pilots Licence or CPL) you can easily make a
killing in the open skies. Pilots anyway make quite a packet-Rs. 2 lakh per month as First Officers and double that as Captains. "Yet, there are hardly any training institutes in India, except the dozen-odd flying clubs, half of which are defunct or dont have an instructor. Often, there are
not enough aircrafts or the instructor is serving as a pilot somewhere," jibes Captain Kapil Gupta, an employee of Air Sahara, who, like most of his ilk took his flight training in the US. The investment in US training is steep (Rs. 18 lakh, which is roughly three times the cost of training in India) but the RoI on this is good, within two-three years, at the most, assures Gupta, who, along with Dad Capt. UC Gupta has just launched High Flyers, an academy for pilot training, affiliated to the US-based Panam International Flight Academy, which has made training in India a little easier. The cost of the High Flyers programme comes to between Rs. 8-9 lakhs. "This is almost twice the cost of an MBA programme from say Amity or Rai, but, in the bargain you get a job as exciting as that of a Captain," says Gupta. Another factor that goes in favour of a pilots job is the easy entry requirement, merely 10'2, plus a passion for flying. The minimum age to get a CPL is 17 and the maximum 45. "You retire at 61," informs Gupta, which is less than in most other fields, but then a pilots job is a rigorous one. "Its not all fun and frolic in the air," cautions Nair. A commercial pilot also has to take a medical examination every six months and renew his licence every year.
Hot jobs
Nonetheless, the market is really hot-so its well worth your while to try your luck at this time. "Start-ups will not operate more than five aircrafts in the first year of operations; but assuming that each airline adds 10 aircraft in each year we are talking of 80 aircraft being added by private airlines. This will necessitate the requirement of no less than 400 pilots annually," predicts Nair. "Even national carriers between them are expected to order approximately 90 aircraft by the end of 2006. Initially, they may wet lease i.e. lease aircrafts that come with the complement of cockpit crew, but eventually they will have to build resources and train pilots to their requirements," observes Nair. So what are you waiting for? Just take wing and learn to fly!
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