Exodus of pilots: Alliance Air in trouble

State-owned carrier Alliance Air, which is facing an exodus of pilots, may pretty soon spend more time on the ground than in the air as nearly half of the existing pilots have put in their papers.

Alliance Air, the wholly owned subsidiary of Indian (erstwhile Indian Airlines) has witnessed "mass resignations" of pilots in the past 18 months, with 58 commanders and co-pilots quitting, bringing their numbers down from 94 to 36, official sources said.

Of the existing 36 pilots, 15 more have submitted their resignations and the remaining ones are also understood to be putting in their papers, the ministry sources said.

The resignations have come at a time when its parent company, Indian, has placed orders for new aircraft to refurbish its own fleet as well as that of the subsidiary.

However, the pilots have not yet been relieved from duty due to the six-month notice period under the rules set by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

They said the notice period of these pilots was likely to be completed by March next year. In case, there were no further resignations, Alliance Air would be left with only a handful of commanders or none at all.

In the recent past, several pilots have protested flying to Leh due to three instances of the vintage B737-200s experiencing engine failure.

The airline has also had to curtail its operations, especially in the Northeast. The carrier has also witnessed the exit of 50 engineers and 20 technicians since August 2004, the sources said, adding that the exodus appeared to continue.

With the advent of new airlines and the expansion programmes of the existing ones, the demand for experienced pilots, engineers and ground staff has suddenly shot up.

Besides increased emoluments, the pilots and engineers were quitting Alliance Air jobs due to its non-permanent nature as they were employed on contract.

Sources said there was another reason why pilots were quitting Alliance Air. This was the attraction to operate new generation Boeing 737 aircraft instead of the vintage B737-200s, which make up the fleet of the public carrier.

The existing and upcoming carriers were inducting new generation planes like B737-800s, which were fitted with sophisticated equipment.

Faced with this situation, the management of Indian as well as its subsidiary are contemplating several measures to check the exodus.

Besides inducting new generation planes, the top management also feels the need to constantly match the emoluments with that of the market to ensure that aircraft do not stay grounded.

Alliance Air, which started operations in April 1996 with old Boeing 737s leased from its parent company, could not take advantage of the availability of pilots and engineers at that time due to reasons relating to industrial relations.

A large number of pilots were available then as several private airlines like East West, NEPC and Damania had collapsed.