India to witness glut in pilots?

Bangalore, Jan 21 (UNI) India may soon have a glut of commercial pilots, with over 5,000 students undergoing training this year.

The country is presently facing a severe shortage of pilots in the wake of the booming civil aviation passenger growth and increasing number of aircraft being ordered to meet the demand.

According to a top aviation department official, ''there has been a big jump in youth joining educational institutes training in aviation and in the coming years, the shortage may turn into a glut.

Earlier, the Director General of Civil Aviation was issuing only 150 commercial pilot licences per annum and it has decided to issue 100 every month from this year.'' The shortage was only among senior pilots and there was no dearth of trained personnel to work as co-pilots. In due course, the co-pilots would become main pilots after gaining the required experience and this would bring down the shortage, he added.

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