New Delhi: IndiGo the countrys largest airline is preparing to recruit pilots on a large scale. The company will hire over 1000 pilots. This is one of the largest recruitment drives undertaken by any airline in the Indian aviation sector. This decision follows operational difficulties in December last year when over 5000 flights were cancelled in just seven days due to crew shortages. Recruitment across several positions According to media reports IndiGos recruitment process includes the positions of trainee first officer senior first officer and captain. The company is taking this step to expand and meet regulatory requirements. IndiGo to add four new aircraft every month IndiGo will add four new aircraft to its fleet every month. New pilots are needed to fly these aircraft. The company is promoting 20 to 25 first officers to captain status every month. It takes six months for a trainee officer to become a captain. 1500 hours of flying experience are required to become a captain. The company is tightening these standards. DGCA regulations According to the regulations each aircraft must have three sets of pilots (one captain and one first officer). However IndiGos aircraft are heavily utilized requiring twice the standard number of pilots. An investigation found that the company needed 2422 captains but at that time it had only 2357 captains available. In light of the crisis the DGCA granted some temporary relaxations to night duty regulations until February 10. The December crisis New pilot rest rules were implemented in December. Under these rules the number of landings between 12 midnight and 6 am was limited and the weekly rest period was extended. The DGCA investigation revealed that IndiGo had not made adequate recruitment efforts or increased training to meet the new regulations. This led to increased workload for pilots and a significant number of flight cancellations.