NEW DELHI: At a time when pilots’ mental health has emerged as a key concern post some recent events, with flydubai cockpit fight being the most recent one, India’s restrictive rules for cockpit crew to leaves domestic airlines only after serving long notice periods could be adding to their stress. The rule for a co-pilot to serve six months’ notice and a captain a year (which has been challenged legally), has made it difficult for foreign airlines to hire Indian aviators as they mostly want people to join in three months. Now with Captain Smit Machchhar proving his mettle in flydubai, the budget arm of Dubai’s mega carrier Emirates, Indian pilots hope foreign airlines — primarily in Gulf and other places like Sri Lanka and South Korea — keep the Indian reality in mind while giving them offer letters.“We usually don’t hire direct from India and prefer if a pilot has worked in a second country before onboarding them,” a senior official of a leading West Asian airline had recently told TOI. The reasons are two-fold: India’s notice period requirement, which remains binding for pilots even if the employer in India defaults on contractual obligations like paying on time, and then informal tie-ups with big Indian carriers against “poaching.
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”A senior official of an airline here said: “Because of the notice period requirement, some pilots here give ‘fake resignation’ in advance and then look for jobs so that they can leave in three months of getting a job abroad. And if they don’t get a job, they take the fake resignation back.”The notice period rule has been challenged by pilots in court and the matter is sub judice. “There are concerns about pilots’ state of mind due to what could be going on in their personal lives. This notice period rule, meant to ensure schedule integrity of airlines by preventing sudden mass resignations, has outlived its utility. Today India has two big and well-funded airline and a few emerging ones. Now it is only protecting airlines that are unable to pay,” said a pilot.
