Close on the heels of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s decision to issue multiple pilot licences, enabling pilots to fly two variants of Airbus A320 on the same day, the industry is seeking common rating for all Airbus A320 planes and remove the restriction of not flying more than two aircraft variants on the same day.

Globally, there is only one simulator for all A320-family aircraft. A pilot, trained on such a simulator, gets a common rating on A319s, A320s and A321s. The cockpit support for all variants of the particular family is identical-if not totally similar.

According to industry sources, a similar common rating is necessary. Without those, airlines are required to recruit additional pilots and, thereby, adding to manpower costs of such highly paid professionals. Monthly salary of pilots in the country averages between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh.

Companies like Indian Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines are inducting variants of the A320 family. As per estimates, Airbus has a market share of over 70 per cent in India, which mostly comprises the A320 family of aircraft. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation estimates that India’s aviation industry employs around 2500 pilots and there is an immediate shortage of 450.