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Outsourcing is taking wings and how. Flight training is moving overseas with aviation boom creating a huge shortage of commercial pilots in India. The country will require anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 pilots to fill cockpits over the next six years. Eyeing the market, institutes in the US, Canada and Australia are offering tailor-made courses. A look at the flying season. There's a lot happening in the Indian skies these days. With more Indians flying than ever before, and several new airlines beginning operations, the Indian aviation industry never looked so good. Indeed, with the Indian aviation industry on a roll, the career options in this field are getting bigger and better. To cash in on the boom, individuals are looking for a wide range of courses ranging from customer care (passenger handling at different levels), ground support (ramp operations), reservation and ticketing, sales and marketing, flight catering, cargo handling, flight engineering, etc. Other entrepreneurs are also hitching a ride on the low-cost airline boom. Among these new opportunities includes the need for training centres for flight attendants. The gradual opening up of the domestic sky as well as launch of a slew of new carriers has given rise to a demand for trained flight attendants. The demand for commercial pilot courses in India is so large that foreign institutes are even lining up tailor-made content compliant with the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) norms. In the last couple of months, various institutes have held roadshows in India and are gearing up their courses towards Indian students. Flying schools in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and US have designed modules in compliance with DGCA norms which include the mandatory flying hours and cross country day and night checks. Besides, US has recently relaxed student visa norms for pilot training, which had become strict after 9/11. Finishing schools for cabin crew - a career option that evinced little interest from youngsters just a year ago - are mushrooming all across the country. Industry representatives say the aviation boom has made the career of flight attendants a popular choice for the vast pool of English-speaking graduates even in smaller cities. After the commercial launch of Kingfisher Airlines and Spice Jet, budget airlines will have other new entrants like Magic Air, GoAir, and Air One in the coming months. Many domestic carriers like Jet Airways and Air Sahara are spreading their wings overseas under the government's liberalised policies. This has fuelled the demand for trained pilots and flight attendants like never before. According to aviation industry experts, the domestic aviation sector would require some 21,000 trained cabin crews this year. This will further rise to 40,000 in the next three years. A trained flight attendant can expect to get a salary of anywhere between Rs 25,000 ($460) and Rs 100,000 ($2,295) per month.
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