ALPA Raises Concerns over High Pilot Training Costs

Mumbai, Feb 25 (PTI) Pilots' grouping ALPA India has written to the civil aviation ministry, raising concerns that airlines are allegedly levying huge sums of money from trainee pilots for training activities.

The Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA India) is a member associate of the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Association (IFALPA).

In a letter to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, the grouping claimed that airlines have resorted to unscrupulous exploitation of trainee pilots by charging them exorbitantly for their training.

Such a situation is financially stressing their parents and creating a debt trap for them, the letter dated February 24 said.

According to ALPA India, it has received reports that trainee pilots are being exploited by airlines in India to pay large sums of money in the name of training costs.

India is one of the fastest growing civil aviation markets in the world and as airlines expand their fleets, there is also a need for more pilots.

The grouping claimed that the funds collected from the trainee pilots were far in excess of the actual cost of this training, "thus making this unethical practice nothing but a mode of profiteering".