NEW DELHI, March 22: India needs 31,000 pilots and 26,000 maintenance engineers
over the next 20 years to meet the requirements of a planned expansion of the
country's aviation.
Going by the increasing number of orders being booked with aircraft manufacturers,
especially South Asia will be the fastest growing market for aviation, according
to Boeing.
Ninety per cent of the market demand over the next 20 years in India will be
for narrow body aircraft and Boeing will be meeting the demands, Boeing India
president Salil Gupte told reporters at a CII event here. Boeing already has
a leadership position in the wide-body aircraft segment.
Considering the fast growth in air traffic and the orders for new aircraft
following the pandemic, India needs to tremendously expand the infrastructure
and train more and more personnel for flying as well as maintenance on the ground.
Air India order for 470 aircraft
The Tata Group-owned Air India had last month placed orders for 470 planes
from Boeing and Airbus. With an option for an additional 370 aircraft, totaling
840, this will be the largest aircraft order by any airline.
However, the airline has not enough staff to run even the existing fleet, it
is reported. At present Air India, including the two subsidiaries of Air India
Express and Air Asia India, and Vistara has just 3,000 pilots for its fleet
of 220 aircraft and flights are many a time cancelled due to shortage of pilots.
The latest order for Airbus comprises 210 A320/321 Neo/XLR and 40 A350- 900/1000
and for Boeing 190 737-Max, 20 787s and 10 777s.
It is estimated that 40 A350 to be flown on long-haul routes alone will need
30 pilots per aircraft, totaling 1,200 pilots for the lot. The orders with
Airbus and Boeing will require a massive number of new pilots and other crew
considering an average of 20 pilots per aircraft the demand crossing the 10,000
mark for pilots alone for which the existing training facilities with the airline
fall far short.
Air India to cut US flights
A shortage of crew is forcing Air India to reduce long-haul flights to US airports.
The airline is looking for more qualified pilots to fly its Boeing 777 fleet
to these destinations. It is dropping six flights until it has an adequate number
of such pilots - three flights each to San Francisco and Newark airports for
the next three months. In the last few months several flights had also to be
cancelled for want of pilots.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said that the airline would add 1,700 captains
soon and that around 1,400 cabin crew are also in training. He said when the
new orders start delivery the airline will need thousands of qualified pilots.
Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson, who opened a new chapter in
space age last month by launching the first manned private flight
to the edge of space, flying in his own spaceplane, has
invited everyone to join his expedition of space travel and
experience the thrill of totally losing your weight (BMI = 0) and enjoy
the mind-blowing sight of the earth's curvatures from the orbit far above: 
Can we ask the vaccinator, "Do you pull back the plunger and
then push the vaccine? Do you Aspirate?" When the vaccination
for covid started there were reports of worrisome incidents of
adverse events post immunisation, the serious complaints being
non-specific blood clots. These related to viral vector vaccines of
human and non-human source: AstraZeneca and Janssen. How
did it happen. There are various views. But here is a suggestion
how simply it can be prevented. 
While the rationalists debunk the episode as a ploy to make up for
the losses in offerings during the corona lockdown, the believers
stick to their claim, they have seen it after all! The claim of
Shankaralinga temple resembles the miracle of Ganesha drinking
milk in Delhi way back in 1995. Although they belong to two
different branches of science. 
A pair of socks gifted to her by her niece displayed on her legs has done
the job for Gumball Poodle. The demand for 'Future is Female' is
skyrocketing indeed. What more could one ask for?
