New Delhi, Dec 1: Air India is in the process of raising bond amount for the new pilots boarding the airline, in a bid to stem their migration to the rivals after acquiring high-cost training at the expense of the national carrier.
Air India currently spends a whopping Rs 25-60 lakh on training of a new entrant to fly a particular type of aircraft after his or her induction, which needs to be recovered if the pilot leaves airline before the mutually agreed time.
According to sources, the airline had made new pilots sign a bond of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 14 lakh in the recent past, which is now being revised upwardly.
As many as 98 trained pilots quit Air India between April 1 last year and October 30 this year to board other airlines, sources said.
Type rating is a regulating agency’s certification of a pilot to fly a certain aircraft type that requires additional training beyond the scope of the initial license and aircraft class training.
Significantly, several domestic airlines in the past have voiced their concern on the poaching of skilled workforce, particularly of pilots, engineers and cabin crew by the competitors.
The poaching of staff “results in crippling shortage of trained manpower for airlines… We can ask the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) to frame guidelines to address this matter.
