Number of aviation employees in Indian scheduled airlines FY 2023, by employee type

The scheduled Indian aviation industry had nearly 73 thousand airline personnel in financial year 2023. IndiGo had the highest percentage of this total personnel employed in its private airlines in that year. It employed over 32 thousand personnel, among which more than four thousand were pilots and co-pilots. 

Foreign hires

In 2021, the regulating body for civil aviation issued 863 commercial pilot licenses. However, there was a shortage of type-rated commanders due to the induction of new types of aircraft and the expanding fleet. IndiGo, had the most foreign pilot recruitments. This was followed by GoAir and AllianceAir. On a year-over-year basis, the number of foreign pilots flying in India rose by over three times. Airlines were expected to draw and submit a phase out plan for expat pilots.

Maintenance, repair and overhaul-MRO

In order to achieve a five trillion U.S. dollar economy, recently the government while announcing the economic restructuring of the aviation sector, reduced the goods and service tax from 18 percent to five percent for this sector. The contribution of this sector in the global MRO sector was minuscule, but with a growing fleet size, this share was expected to increase. By 2032, the market size of the MRO sector in India was estimated to be almost four times that in 2022.