July 17: The increasing number of airline operators and their aircrafts in Nepal has resulted in shortage of pilots in the aviation industry. Due to this scarcity of human resource, the airline companies have been compelled to increase the salary to attract the pilots.

Nepal Airlines Cooperation (NAC), the national flag carrier of Nepal, has been troubled the most. According to Saugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC, the company has been affected by the scarcity of pilots. NAC, despite announcing vacancy for the post of pilots repeatedly, has not received sufficient application for enrollment.

NAC needs a total of 116 pilots and co-pilots to operate its entire fleet of aircraft but it currently has a team of 88 pilots only.

The flag carrier recently landed its first Airbus A330-220 wide-body aircraft and is in the process of acquiring another such plane for which NAC needs 28 more pilots.  

NAC is recruiting pilots from abroad after analyzing the situation in the country. Kansakar informed that the airline troubled by the scarcity of manpower has been compelled to recruit foreigners.

We don’t want to obstruct the operation of our wide-body Airbus aircraft, for which we are acquiring pilots from abroad, he informed.

Additionally, he mentioned that the team had been working to acquire the required manpower including pilots and engineers months before acquiring the aircraft.

NAC has received permit from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and the department of labor to recruit foreign pilots.

Kansakar informed that two Airbus A320 narrow-body aircraft are currently operated by a team of Nepali pilots and the airline wants to handover the A330 aircraft to Nepali pilots within two years duration by training them.