New Delhi: India’s aviation industry is witnessing a peculiar paradox. The sector is among the fastest growing spaces globally, but it is facing a human resource crisis, particularly a shortage of skilled workers.
This deficit is not limited to just pilots either, although the shortage of pilots has been in the news over the last few weeks due to the troubles at Vistara. According to agencies that track human resources across the economy, the airline industry has a 17 percent deficit of skilled workers, which is only set to widen to 25 percent over the course of this year.
Last year, the aviation sector also witnessed a shortage of cabin crew staff, but this was ameliorated when GoFirst filed for insolvency in May 2023, which freed up workers for employment by other airlines facing a crunch.
“This absence of skilled professionals poses a formidable hurdle to the industry’s upward trajectory, impacting pivotal roles such as pilots, air traffic controllers, engineers, and maintenance technicians,” said Dhriti Prasanna Mahanta, vice president and business head, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, an employability-focused talent development programme.
Mahanta added that the substantial skill gap — the difference between demand and supply — in established technical domains, such as pilots and service engineers, also exists in emerging areas like artificial intelligence specialists and blockchain-certified professionals, ranging from 32 percent to 43 percent. For non-technical roles, the skill gap ranges from 38 percent to 41 percent.
One of the most significant reasons for this skill gap, according to Shantanu Gangakhedkar, senior consultant-aerospace and defence at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, is that many airlines reduced their staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now struggling to ramp up their hirings to meet the faster-than-anticipated growth in the aviation space. He added that many skilled employees who were let go during the pandemic left the industry altogether.
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Shortage despite unemployed pilots
While the pilot shortage is a perennial issue, the Vistara crisis has managed to bring attention to the matter. The deficit exists despite the fact that there are about 4,000-5,000 young pilots who are still unemployed.
“The workforce shortage in the case of pilots is especially much higher as recruiting pilots takes much longer given the limited supply, and training them also takes time and incurs high cost,” Gangakhedkar said. “Pilot training requires high investment and without sponsorship from an airline, it is difficult for many to self-sponsor for the training.”
Mahanta said that there was currently a 12-15 percent shortfall of trained and certified pilots.
“Manpower is a huge cost for airlines — it accounts for nearly 40 percent of their operating costs,” he said. “There is always a tussle between the airlines and the pilots over flying hours as it not only affects their pay, but also future opportunities.”
Why the shortfall despite the availability of qualified pilots who are unemployed? This may be due to the fact that airlines look for more experienced pilots, as training new ones takes time and costs money.
That the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a record 1,622 Commercial Pilot’s Licences (CPLs) in 2023, surpassing the previous milestone of 1,165 in 2022, does not excite aviation analysts or airlines too much.
“Merely getting a CPL doesn’t mean enough. It’s the base level. We have around 4,000-5,000 young pilots with CPLs who are currently unemployed. Airlines do not prefer to hire them,” said Sanjay Lazar, aviation expert and CEO at Avialaz Consultants, an aviation consultancy firm.
To attain the CPL, prospective pilots spend around Rs 40-50 lakh, following which they need to get a jet type-rating, a certification that allows pilots to operate certain types of aircraft. This could cost an additional Rs 20-30 lakh. Alternatively, pilot aspirants join the cadet programmes of airlines, which typically cost up to Rs 1 crore.
“Further, once they get employed, they take a minimum of five-seven years to get to the command positions,” Lazar highlighted. “They join as first officers and later, post the airline transport pilot licence (ATPL) and 1500 hours of experience, they are made senior first officers and subsequently moved to command.”
He added that the government must look into the matter as there is a huge cost involved in becoming a pilot with jet ratings — the highest rating, which is required to operate large planes.
TeamLease’s Mahanta said that the cost of pilot training is high in India and the Ministry of Civil Aviation should introduce schemes to incentivise pilot training infrastructure. He also suggested that the University Grants Commission should, under the National Education Policy, introduce credit-based aviation courses in universities and colleges.
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Lack of planning by airlines, government
Attributing the workforce shortage largely to lack of planning by airlines, sector analysts believe the government and the aviation regulator need to step in to ensure the airlines’ personnel planning is in conformity with their expansion plans.
“The pilot crisis did not happen overnight,” Lazar said. “It has been a perennial problem in the industry. The industry is growing at a very rapid pace, and we have not kept pace with this growth. Hence, there is a shortage of pilots, which leads to airlines using them excessively — resulting in fatigue for the pilots.”
While the airlines don’t violate the relevant norms, Lazar said that they “do stretch them”.
The situation has arisen mainly due to inadequate long-term planning by the airlines in terms of matching their acquisition of new aircraft with the number of pilots they have.
According to Lazar, it can take anywhere from six months to 10 years for a new or leased aircraft to come into the system, and about five-seven years or more for a pilot to get to the command level.
“The government and the regulator should step in and should demand a detailed airline roadmap for pilot and crew requirements in line with the aircraft and route expansions and not treat it lightly, as they do now,” he said.
According to government data, as of March 2023, there were about 10,000 pilots employed with various airlines in India, which cumulatively had 771 aircraft at the end of last year.
Aviation research firm CAPA expects Indian carriers to have an order book for 2,000 planes by March next year, for which industry estimates a requirement of about 9,000-10,000 additional pilots. In 2024 so far, IndiGo, Air India and Akasa Air have collectively ordered 1,120 planes.
Further, the high demand for pilots in India is not exactly new information. The government has been aware of the issue for years now.
A parliamentary panel report, presented in Parliament in December 2022, noted the “acute shortage of skilled manpower and proper training institutes” in the aviation industry and estimated that there would be a growing requirement of around 1,000 pilots every year in the near future in the country.
US aircraft maker Boeing also estimates that India may require 31,000 pilots over the next 20 years, or nearly 1,500 pilots every year.
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Fixing the crisis: How to get enough trained pilots
According to Frost & Sullivan’s Gangakhedkar, India should focus on two key segments of the industry. The first, he said, is to develop pilot training schools offering comprehensive training with flight simulators, and support from airlines for student sponsorship programmes and simulators to support faster training.
The second is to develop a robust maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) ecosystem in the country supported by highly skilled certified technicians, which, he said, will aid in a further increase in India’s MRO capabilities not only to support demand domestically but also of the region in the future.
Lazar added that the airlines must be incentivised to train young people rather than opt for expats who earn as much as Rs 20 lakh per month. For this, the DGCA must link the granting of Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorization (FATA) licences for expat pilots to airlines inducting Indian CPL pilots.
“A tripartite collaboration between industry stakeholders, educational institutions, and governmental bodies emerges as a linchpin in effectively addressing this pressing issue,” Mahanta said. “By leveraging their collective resources, expertise, and insights, these partners can devise tailored strategies calibrated to meet the evolving needs of the aviation landscape.”
Currently, direct employment in aviation and aeronautical manufacturing stands at approximately 2,50,000 employees and this figure is expected to witness a significant increase, reaching around 3,50,000 by the end of 2024, according to him.
“In terms of roles, certain positions are anticipated to be in high demand,” he said. “For instance, the demand for pilots is expected to surge, with estimates suggesting a requirement of about 2,500-3,000 pilots in the upcoming year.”
He said that over and above this, roles such as aircraft mechanic service technicians, avionic technicians, safety and compliance managers, engineers, quality managers, airworthiness engineers, operations controllers, and ground staff are also expected to be in high demand, highlighting the diverse skill sets needed to support the expanding aviation industry.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)