Reacting to the cancellation of flights by Jet Airways after its pilots went on strike, he said: 'The airlines instead of cancelling the flights can hire pilots who are trained abroad and remain unemployed here.'

There are around 3,000 trained pilots possessing commercial pilots licence in India and around 150 of them have joined together to form a union called the All India Unemployed Pilots Association.

The pilots were trained in overseas institutes spending around Rs.3.5 million when the airline industry boomed in India.