Mumbai: Six major domestic airlines have employed 13,989 pilots, with Air India and its low-cost arm, Air India Express, having 6,350 and 1,592 pilots respectively and IndiGo having 5,085 cockpit crew, Parliament was informed on Monday.

The number of pilots at Akasa is 466 and at SpiceJet, it is 385, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The government-run Alliance Air has employed 111 pilots, he added.

The minister said the rate of employment among qualified pilots is dependent on market forces.

He said the rationale behind airlines hiring foreign pilots, inter alia, is the requirement of a specific type-rated pilot in light of fleet expansions and time-bound operational requirements.

Mohol also said the flying

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