A commercial pilot's license (CPL), particularly from a flying school abroad, was considered a guaranteed ticket for a job at any airline five years ago. However, the allure of the aviation industry, which had advertized a shortage of pilots in 2005, has already faded for 5,000 pilots, most of whom are sitting jobless for almost two or three years now.

Around 800 of these have come together to form Unemployed Pilots Welfare Association (UPWA), which has been holding meetings with the ministry of civil aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). After two meetings with the UPWA, the DGCA has now planned to design a full-fledged training programme for co-pilots in various airlines so that they can be promoted as commanders and more vacancies are created at the bottom.

UPWA was started by a veteran pilot, Ashok Arya, in 2009, when economic slowdown hit the aviation industry and many trained CPL holders were left jobless. Since then, 56-year-old Arya's association has attracted 800 members from across the country.

"Almost two decades ago, there were around 800 pilots who were jobless. The government came to their rescue and gave them jobs in the Coast Guard, the ATC or even in agricultural aviation," he said. "Though that may not be possible today, the government should at least have norms to help these pilots," he added.

Many UPWA members had taken huge education loans to go abroad for their training. "We have pilots who have trained from academies in India, Philippines, U.S., etc. Their training has cost them 18-20 lakh rupees. All of them are jobless," said a member, who got his CPL in 2009 but hasn't got an opportunity to fly with any airline yet. "The aviation industry had held out a promise in 2004 when it needed pilots. Now there are no vacancies at the trainee level," he added.

Disappointed, many of these pilots are working in call centres to repay their loans.

Asked about the UPWA, the director-general of civil aviation, E K Bharat Bhushan, said the problem of unemployment among trained Indian pilots was colossal. However, he would take measures to create room for them. "I am holding a meeting with the airlines on Monday and will ask them to give me a list of co-pilots who have been trained and promoted as commander in the last six months. This will be a slow but effective way to bring more trainee pilots into the industry," Bhushan said.

However, pilots feel that no measure will be adequate till the DGCA and the ministry ensures that expatriate pilots are phased out from the posts of commanders to create more posts. "There are many co-pilots who have the Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL), which makes them eligible to be commanders, but the airline has not trained them to be commanders because expatriates are already on those posts," said a senior member of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), a union of Air India (AI) pilots. He said that in AI there have been 80 co-pilots who are eligible to be commanders for the last two years. However the airline has still not phased out the ex patriots and promoted them. "If they are promoted, 80 new co-pilots can be recruited as well," the IPG member said. The DGCA had instructed airlines to phase out ex patriot pilots by 2010, however, the deadline has now been extended to 2013.

"Airlines are in no mood to phase them out and the DGCA will keep on extending the deadline. There is no review on the phasing plan airlines submit. No review has happened on the lists submitted by airlines on its co-pilots who are eligible to be commanders two years ago. DGCA hasn't bothered to check if those people have been promoted to create vacancies for the unemployed lot," said a UPWA member.