Chandigarh: Even as the Indian Air Force (IAF) is facing a severe crunch of trained pilots, it is not averse to its pilots joining the commercial airlines.

"The IAF is allowing its pilots to take up civil jobs," Air Marshall P K Barbora, who is also AOC-I-C Western Command told reporters during his first visit to the Airforce station here after assuming charge. He, however, said that the IAF was at present short of 1200 odd trained pilots.

"The IAF is allowing only non-active military flying pilots to join the commercial airlines," he said adding that "the IAF has become the avenue of second career option for the trained pilots." If a commercial pilot is getting an annual salary of Rs three to four lakh per month then he will prefer to join commercial airlines, he said and hoped that the salary of pilots would take a big leap after the sixth pay commission report.

Source : PTI