Ajay Rajagopalan came to New Zealand in 2010 as a student at the International Aviation Academy of New Zealand (IAANZ). He now works as a Captain for Air New Zealand after 12 years of enduring the typical difficulties of being a migrant in New Zealand and the grind of dealing with Immigration NZ. Those who wish to pursue their dreams should take inspiration from his narrative of perseverance and tenacity.
Rajagopalan hails from Chennai and has always wanted to become a pilot. As most Indian fathers, his dad wanted him to become a doctor since he was good at studying. Rajagopalan did try to find pathways to get into aviation, but due to a lack of proper information and a painfully long roadmap to getting a commercial pilot license, he ended up studying Information Technology at SRM College, Chennai.
After finishing his studies, he got placed and started working in IT industry. Even then, he kept exploring options to get into aviation. In doing so, he realised that in India, it would take him a minimum of 2.5 years to get a commercial license and he will have to pay double of what you would pay overseas. He compared options of studying aviation in US, Philippines, Canada, Australia, New Zealand where one could study aviation and get a commercial license in one year.
Rajagopalan says, "After narrowing down the options to Australia and New Zealand, I chose New Zealand because I had heard of some racial abuse incidents in Australia. New Zealand seemed to be a better and safer option at the time. Christchurch-based International Aviation Academy of New Zealand (IAANZ), appeared like the best choice because of its positive reviews and good academic standards."
When he came to New Zealand, the plans were to finish his studies, get a pilot's license, move back to India and work in the Indian aviation sector after converting his license.
While studying aviation, he realised that he had wasted four years studying Information Technology in India, when he could come to New Zealand straight away and would probably be flying by now. But in a strange twist of fate, his Indian education ended up being instrumental in him obtaining a residence visa for New Zealand.
After receiving his pilot's license in New Zealand, he might have been able to get employment as a fight instructor after gaining his flight instructor rating at IAANZ. Rajagopalan, however, opted to stick to his original plan and go back to India, where he passed the necessary examinations to convert his commercial pilot license (CPL) for India. The procedure was supposed to take two months, but for a variety of reasons, it really took nine months. He grew impatient with the procedure despite being one of only a handful of pilots—out of 6,000—to pass the exams and topping in one of the papers.
"It was painful as I was not working and had no idea how long the process will take. I also found that the Indian aviation sector was challenging even after getting the license, with few jobs and dismal work conditions."
At that point, Rajagopalan decided to return to New Zealand. He returned to New Zealand on a student visa to get his flight instructor certification and begin a career in New Zealand aviation. He sent applications to several flying schools before receiving a job offer from a tiny school in Auckland. Desperate to get into the job market, he took up the job and spent around 18 months there.
Rajagopalan recalls, "Those were hard times. I worked as a flight instructor for minimum wage from Monday to Friday and flipped burgers in McDonald's on weekends, to pay for my education loan and living costs."
When he got an employer-sponsored work visa, he had to stop working in McDonald’s and solely work with the flying school.
Life was reasonably good, and Rajagopalan applied for Residence visa hoping his job as a flight instructor would make his case reasonably easy but he was shocked to learn that his visa was rejected as his employment as a flight instructor was not considered a skilled employment. He was also told that his studies in India was not relevant to his job as a flight instructor so it will not be considered. He tried to reason that his study of IT was relevant in flying as modern aircrafts use technology extensively. In spite of his best efforts, he was unable to convince Immigration, which opted to follow its own interpretation of the rules. The experience was disheartening, and Rajagopalan decided to move to Christchurch and join IAANZ as flight instructor, thinking it would be easier to get residency since it was a bigger school with a good reputation.
While at IAANZ, Rajagopalan also handled non-flight stuff like their computer systems, e-learning, and the digital side of the company.
He finally submitted an Expression of Interest(EOI) for residency again and this time was invited to apply. Once again, the Immigration officer raised the issue of his education not being relevant to his job, but this time he made a detailed response outlining the specific subjects that he studied which were directly relevant to his current job.
He got his residency in two days.
After that, things became much easier. In 2017 Rajagopalan applied at Air New Zealand and started working as the First Officer with the national carrier in 2018, flying Turboprop aircraft.
In August 2022, Rajagopalan was promoted as Turboprop Captain.
The last 2-3 years have been really challenging for the aviation industry.
Rajagopalan says, "We were hit badly. I remember two days into the lockdown, I was on 10 flights with a total of five passengers. Due to Government's mandate we had to fly even if there was no passenger."
Rajagopalan even had to take a pay cut to keep his job and 250 pilots were let go by Air NZ.
Now though, domestic travel has been really busy and the sector is looking promising once again.
Rajagopalan and his wife Swapnika, an ANZ Bank employee, reside in their own home in Christchurch. He thinks about how fortunate he is to have parents who supported him to pursue his dream of becoming an airline pilot.
Rajagopalan is also all praise for Air New Zealand, "The work environment is great. I believe it is the best airline in the world and amongst the best places to work."
When asked what advice he would give for any youngsters wanting to be a pilot
Rajagopalan says “Perseverance and Resilience are the two things which would get you there. The world would always want to fly and it needs qualified pilots to fly them. You are one of them, NEVER GIVE UP ON THE DREAMS !!!”