Air India to hire over 80 junior pilots for wide-body Boeing planes

State-owned Air India is hiring over 80 junior pilots for its wide-body Boeing B777 and B787 aircraft to meet the shortage of cockpit crew. The process to induct these first officers or co-pilots is in the final stage and they are expected to join Air India by next month, an airline source said here. Air India currently has about 170 co-pilots to steer its 15 B777 and 23 B787 planes as against a requirement of over 370, the source said.It is scheduled to take delivery of four more Boeing 787 as well as three B777 between July this year and March next year. The airline operates these planes majorly on its long and ultra long haul routes. “As many as 95 candidates were selected for the simulator test after they cleared the written examination. Of these, 85 could clear the simulator test and they are now in the process of joining Air India,” the source said. These candidates are already type rated on narrow body Boeing 737 and conversion as pilots for the wide-body B737 can be done easily, he said.<br/>