Unfortunate it certainly is that the aviation sector is hard hit by a shortage of pilots. Thanks to lucrative salaries and benefits abroad, particularly in neighbouring India, the Nepali pilots are said to be fast moving out of the country. Besides a sizeable number of those who have already left for India looking for better prospects, reportedly, around 20 pilots from Gorkha Airlines, Sita Air and Nepal Airlines Corporation recently quit their jobs. Obviously, this has affected the regular domestic flight schedules as the number of flights has gone down to six or seven from ten or twelve per day. Clearly, if not addressed on time, this trend could soon give rise to much trouble for the country leaving the authorities with a serious national crisis.

Nepal’s mountainous terrain, no doubt, demands a set of well-trained manpower in the airlines sector. But at a time when the aviation industry itself is struggling hard to sustain, those pilots migrating to India cannot be blamed for abandoning the country. Also, there is no logic why anyone should be stopped from grabbing better opportunities. After all, the pilots can easily earn up to Rs 500,000 a month in India given the booming airlines industry there. The authorities concerned have to soon redesign and develop a whole new set of policies to retain the valuable manpower in the country itself. For this, the pilots should be given better facilities and the promised pay hike. Towards that end, the government and the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal’s commitment to introduce ‘aviation friendly’ policies would hopefully address the issue appropriately.