India Tries To Block Foreign Airlines From Poaching Pilots, Calls It “Disturbing”

Indian regulators tried to get other countries to buy into a “code of conduct,” to limit foreign job opportunities for Indian pilots. Fortunately this was pretty quickly rejected, but talk about a self-serving proposal…

India wants to restrict its pilots from working abroad

Aviation in India has seen a huge amount of growth in recent years, particularly with the expansion of IndiGo, but also with the changes at Air India. That’s expected to continue in the coming decades, as Indian carriers try to regain market share that has been lost to Gulf carriers, among other airlines.

As you’d expect, this means that a lot of pilots are needed to actually fly all of these new planes. The issue is, a lot of Indian pilots are choosing to gain some experience at Indian carriers, and then work abroad, where they can make a lot more money.

This is something that India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation is trying to stop. In August 2025, a working paper was submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is the aviation bod of the United Nations (UN). This came ahead of the General Assembly that took place in late September and early October 2025.

This paper was titled “Practices Impacting Orderly Conduct of International Civil Aviation,” and it called on a “code of conduct” among member states to regulate cross border staff recruitment. Per the paper, “this practice creates an unfair competitive disadvantage where Indian carriers effectively subsidise the training costs of foreign airlines while bearing the operational disruption costs themselves.”

This proposal largely came due to pressure from India’s major airlines, which claim they need more consistency for their long term planning and continued growth. As IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers explained in an interview:

“Both IndiGo and Air India are making massive investments in buying new planes, and now we are collaborating with schools. There are both public and private sector investments in developing airports and other infrastructure. In that context it would be a bit disturbing if you have large groups of people being poached and moved away.”

India wanted to increase the amount of notice pilots have to give in order to resign (to the point that they realistically couldn’t have a job lined up elsewhere), plus increases to the requirements to repay training costs.

This proposal didn’t end up getting support from a majority of states, with many believing these issues should be dealt with on a national level, and don’t fall under the purview of the ICAO.

As you’d expect, this was also heavily opposed by pilot unions in India, who argued that this violates fundamental rights, by restricting Indian pilots from seeking lawful employment abroad. ALPA India called this “unconstitutional, anti-liberal, and damaging to India’s global image.” The union also claimed that “this proposal risks institutionalising a form of bonded labour, where Indian pilots may be locked into employment with a single airline under changing service conditions.”

Sorry, this is how the global economy works

I’m happy to see that India’s proposal was shot down. Essentially local airlines and regulators were arguing against the concept of the global economy, and pilots maximizing their earnings potential. A couple of things come to mind here…

First of all, broadly speaking, airlines have a lot of power over pilots, in terms of the importance of seniority, and how they’re essentially committed to an airline, through the highs and lows. Once you’ve racked up a lot of seniority at an airline, you’re likely stuck at that airline, and can’t easily find a similar role elsewhere.

India’s desire for this “poaching” rule is intended to challenge the concept of differing labor rates across the globe. Countries have vastly different income levels and costs of living, and it’s fine for everyone to decide what’s best for them:

• One major hurdle to working abroad is how hard it is to get a work visa for another country (for pilots, this is typically pretty easy in the Gulf region, but more difficult in the United States, European Union, etc.)
• While working for more pay is nice, there are also sacrifices, like being further away from your family, being on the hook for a higher cost of living, etc.

By the way, it’s not like this problem of pilots being poached is exclusive to Indian airlines. Sure, some pilots in India may be heading to Gulf carriers, but Gulf carriers also have their own poaching problems, with pilots going elsewhere. For example, I recently saw a senior Qatar Airways wide body captain who resigned there, to start at the bottom of the seniority totem pole at United Airlines, as a Boeing 737 first officer.

Pilot pay rates across the globe vary massively, though perhaps not as much as potential income otherwise varies in the respective countries. For example, a senior US airline captain may have three times the earning potential of a senior Indian airline captain.

Bottom line

India proposed anti-pilot poaching regulations, intended to make it more difficult for pilots in India to accept jobs abroad. It’s fine for that to be on India’s agenda, though unsurprisingly, other countries weren’t down for this, and found the proposal to be unreasonable.

Ultimately this is just a reality of the industry, and it’s natural for anyone to want to maximize their earning potential. If India has a big problem with pilots being poached by other airlines, then it sounds like pay rates have to be increased and working conditions have to be improved, to be more globally competitive.

What do you make of India’s proposal on pilot poaching?