Akasa Air crisis: Airline's woes show just how bad India’s pilot shortage crisis is

As many as 43 pilots resigning from Akasa Air abruptly and leaving India’s youngest airline to flag that it may have to cancel 700 flights in September, points to a deeper crisis of pilot shortage in India – the fastest growing aviation market and third largest market globally.  

Take a look at the numbers.   

India is woefully underserved with 700 aircraft. China has 7,000 aircraft. Experts point out that planes are going full and ticket rates are touching the sky. It is a good sign for the industry and means that more capacity is required.  

Indian airlines have placed orders for at least 1,115 planes to be delivered over the next decade, with a bulk of them expected to come in after 2025. For instance, Akasa Air CEO Vinay Dube reiterated on Wednesday that the airline is on track to announce a three-digit aircraft order by the end of this year to serve the growing travel demand. 

A narrow-body commercial plane that flies on domestic routes requires 14-16 pilots to ensure smooth operations, while a wide-body aircraft needs 24-26 pilots, per industry standards. As India has only a small proportion of wide-body planes, a conservative estimate of 15-16 pilots per plane means 17,000-18,000 pilots are required over the next decade. That is, 1,700-1,800 per year on an average. But the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) registers only 600-750 commercial pilot licence (CPL) holders every year. 

“We will be off by 100 per cent within a few years. Even a 5-10 per cent shortage is considered a manpower challenge in any industry. So, if there’s a 100 per cent shortage, it could mean you are dead and buried,” Hemanth D.P., CEO of Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy had told BusinessToday earlier. Incidentally, India currently has 9,000 pilots who fly its 700 aircraft. 

Akasa Air, which is suing the 43 pilots who resigned to join a rival airline without serving their notice period for disrupting operations, reportedly informed the Delhi High Court that the airline was in "crisis" and may shut down after the abrupt resignations.  

The airline has since clarified that it has a 10-year plan covering pilot recruitment, training and internal career upgrades and that they have enough pilots at various phases of training to fly over 30 aircraft. It also pointed out that pilot shortage is an issue that the airline industry has faced for decades. “As a team of planners, we are prepared for unforeseen circumstances and have contingency management strategies in place," a spokesperson has said. Besides, the airline on Wednesday said it has received the civil aviation ministry’s recognition to fly international. 

Aviation advisory and research firm CAPA India estimates that 150-175 of the new planes ordered by Indian airlines will arrive in 2024, and require 1,800-2,000 more pilots to fly them. “We need to triple our capacity,” Udit Agarwal, Team Lead, CAPA India, had told BusinessToday.  

C.S. Randhawa, Secretary of the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), had said that the shortage is particularly of experienced captains with 3,000 flying hours (which is four to five years of flying experience) under their belts. As he sees the 1,100 ordered planes arriving within five years, he estimates India needs 1,400 captains (pilots) and 1,400 first officers (co-pilots) every year. “You may find first officers in the market because there are more than 2,000 unemployed CPL holders. But I don’t foresee the industry producing more than 130 captains cumulatively. The shortfall is over 1,100 captains. Where will they come from?”