HomeAviation NewsPilot shortage most likely causing long delays in Air India's overseas flights

Pilot shortage most likely causing long delays in Air India's overseas flights

The airline needs 1,850 pilots to fly 114 aircraft. But CNBC-TV18 has learnt that Air India currently has only about 1,600 pilots, and this shows a clear shortage in the required critical manpower.

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By Madeeha Mujawar  March 17, 2023, 10:00:21 PM IST (Updated)

2 Min Read
Pilot shortage most likely causing long delays in Air India's overseas flights
Air India has been facing increasing complaints from passengers about long delays in flights, especially ultra-long-haul flights like those to US destinations. CNBC-TV18

tried to get to the root cause of these inadvertent delays. An acute shortage of pilots appears as the most likely reason.

Air India's fleet has increased sharply since the Tatas took over. Many of the grounded aircraft have been serviced and put back in the air. Air India signed lease agreements for 36 aircraft to augment its expansion plans, many of these planes are also being added to the fleet.

While the capacity is being expanded, sources tell CNBC-TV18 pilots and crew strength are not at par with aircraft addition.

The airline currently has 114 aircraft of which 68 are narrow-body planes and 46 are wide-body planes including 19 Boeing 777s and 27 Boeing 787s. Each 777 requires 26 pilots and the 787 requires 20 pilots. So 46 wide-body planes need 1,034 pilots.

We did the same calculation for narrow-body fleets as well where each aircraft needs 12 pilots, so 68 planes require 816 pilots.



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Adding these numbers tells us that the airline needs 1,850 pilots to fly 114 aircraft. But we learn that Air India currently has only about 1,600 pilots, and this shows a clear shortage in the required critical manpower.



What also needs to be factored in is that not all of the 1,600 pilots will be reporting on duty, some may have exceeded flying hours, some may be sick or on leave.

Sources say a similar situation is also being experienced on the cabin crew side. So all this put together is most likely leading to the delays in flights that passengers are experiencing.

CNBC-TV18 reached out to Air India seeking their response on the issue but they have yet to respond to our query.

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