Jet Airways will send some foreign pilots home

Indian pilots have found a silver lining in the depression cloud. The country's largest private airline, Jet Airways, has decided to "phase out" some of its expatriate pilots, as part of its cost-cutting move. Indian pilots have been demanding the removal of expatriate pilots for a long time.

The company will "phase out excess expatriate pilots" over the next few months.

However, it has also decided not to hire new pilots. It will "not replace staff vacancies which arise due to staff attrition," said a source in the company, wishing anonymity.

When contacted, the company spokesperson confirmed the airline's decision to trim foreign pilot head count but declined to give the exact number to be phased-out.

"The excess foreign pilots over the next few months would be phased out depending the capacity rationalisation undertaken. So we do not have an estimate of the number of pilots at the moment," the spokesperson said.

The Naresh Goyal-promoted company has 252 foreign pilots out of a total of 1,350 pilots.

Jet reported losses of Rs Rs 214.18 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2008. The airline has already announced discontinuation of the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight, as part of its route rationalisation exercise.