India climbs above global average in hiring female airline pilots

Mumbai, September 5: India soars above global average in hiring female airline pilots. Now it would be a much easier career to embrace. More Indian women want to become pilots, and more benefits await them: union-mandated equal pay, a safe workplace, day care services and a booming aviation sector.

 

India has the highest proportion of female commercial pilots in the world at 12 percent, despite the country’s patriarchal society, which typically frowns on women in such jobs.

The percentage of female pilots in India is twice as high as in most Western countries, including the United States and Australia. Globally, less than 5 percent of pilots are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.

Demand for pilots globally is surging. Planemaker Boeing Co (BA.N) estimates a need for 790,000 new pilots globally over the next 20 years, double the current workforce, as air travel rises.

India is the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, with domestic capacity growing 22 percent in the first half of the year, so airlines there are under particular pressure.

Because pilot pay is based on seniority and flying hours under union agreements, it is one of the rare professions in India where there is no gender pay gap. The starting salary, including flying allowance, for pilots there is $25,000 to $47,000 a year depending on the airline and type of aircraft. That is similar to the starting salary for corporate lawyers or architects.

About 13 percent of the pilots at IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (INGL.NS), are women, up from 10 percent five years ago, the company said. Some of IndiGo’s 330 female pilots are also managers.

The company provides daycare and says it offers pregnant women office duties and an allowance equivalent to what they would have earned flying, helping them “constructively stay engaged with the profession.”

At SpiceJet Ltd, (SPJT.BO) 12 percent of pilots are women, including some department heads, and there is a mandate to grow that to 33 percent in the next three years, chairman Ajay Singh said this year at the Farnborough Airshow in Britain. The company also gives women a fixed monthly flying schedule.