Air India (AI) is reported to be looking out for 100 pilots for its Boeing 777 fleet of wide-body planes. The carrier is open to hiring pilots from abroad, and has reportedly started its search for suitable candidates through various agencies.
Now owned by the Tata Group, AI is not only introducing more flights to international destinations, but looking to expand its fleet of wide-body aircraft as well. Naturally, it will require more experienced pilots to fly the same.
As per the advertisements by certain agencies, AI is offering a salary of $11,500 per month (net of taxes) and $133.30 for every hour of flying, beyond 70 hours of flying (net of taxes), in addition to benefits.
However, senior pilots in India are wondering why the Airline should rely on expat crew to fly its planes when there is no dearth of pilots in its own country.
After being owned by the Government for almost 70 years, AI was taken over by the Tata group in January 2022. Since expat crew need to be paid a lot more than domestic crew, for years, the Airline had not been hiring pilots from abroad in an endeavour to cut costs.
Now, with AI reportedly planning to add new Boeing 777 aircraft to its fleet, the need for experienced pilots has surfaced. And it seems AI, is not averse to looking outside India to meet the requirement of pilots.
Due to Jet Airways being grounded in 2019, many pilots that flew wide-body planes have moved to other airlines abroad. This is one of the reasons for the shortage of pilots experienced in flying wide-body planes in India presently. Amongst the Indian airlines, only Air India and Vistara fly wide-body aircraft now.
