The battle for the cockpit

In the high-growth corridors of Indian aviation, the fiercest competition is for pilots. Over the past year, a quiet but escalating talent war has upended airline schedules, strained training pipelines, and sent boardrooms scrambling for answers. Gulf carriers have become a magnet for Indian-trained commanders, while domestic rivals poach from one another in a cycle of disruption and retaliation. India recently broke the silence, taking the fight to the ICAO and urging the creation of a global code of conduct to curb aggressive last-minute hiring.

- NIDHI SHARMA reports

The Indian aviation sector is facing an unprecedented talent drain as airlines engage in fierce battles over pilots, prompting the government to seek global intervention.

The issue came to a head in August 2025, when New Delhi formally submitted a working paper to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), calling for a 'global code of conduct' to mitigate the poaching of airline staff, with an emphasis on pilots and cabin crew, particularly by Gulf carriers that have been aggressively poaching Indian-trained pilots. India's proposal does not mince words and the paper frames the problem bluntly: when trained personnel are lured away with little or no notice by foreign airlines, the sending airline must absorb the cost of expensive type ratings, simulator hours and command upgrades while facing immediate operational churn, cancelled frequencies and delayed growth plans — posing a direct obstacle to the vision of developing India into a global aviation. It asked for an international forum to set norms that reduce disruptive, last-minute hiring.

The poaching problem is further aggravated by an impending pilot shortage, and the crisis comes at a critical juncture. Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu has stated that India will need around 30,000 pilots over the next 15-20 years, given that airlines currently have over 1,700 planes on order, and there are only 6,000-7,000 active pilots today.

Airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, and Akasa have placed orders for over 1,200 new planes, but the training infrastructure in India is insufficient to produce enough pilots at the required pace.