India presses for global ‘code of conduct’ over pilot poaching

India wants countries to agree a new code of conduct on hiring each other’s airline staff after raising concerns that its fast-growing aviation system is being stifled by the poaching of Indian pilots and cabin crew without adequate notice.

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India, one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, is wrestling with a shortage of experienced pilots, denting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aspiration of developing a job-creating global aviation hub. The recent fatal crash of an Air India jetliner has sparked tighter scrutiny of the sector.

But foreign airlines are repeatedly hiring skilled staff from Indian airlines, “adversely impacting India’s ability to develop its civil aviation sector in an orderly manner”, India said in an August 1 working paper submitted to the UN’s aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organisation.