Air staff school eyes east & NE

Buoyed by the response in Kolkata, Air Hostess Academy (AHA) would start operations in north-eastern India in a big way.

AHA will open training centres at Guwahati (Assam), Shillong (Meghalaya) and Siliguri in north Bengal in next couple of months, the chief consultant of AHA, Sapna Gupta, said.

A training institute for aviation, hospitality and tourism sectors, AHA would focus on eastern India in view of the great potential it offered in terms of available human resources for the aviation and hospitality sectors.

Gupta said AHA had already received 2,000 applications at its Kolkata centre for admission to its one and two year training courses for aviation and hospitality industry.

"AHA has received 2,000 applications in just one month, from Kolkata and from towns like Siliguri, Guwahati, Shillong and Ranchi, so AHA will be gradually rolled out to these towns in future," she said.

According to Gupta, the first session at the month-old Kolkata centre would start from July 2005. "It shall shortlist 250 students," Gupta added.

Terming aviation as one of the fastest growing sectors, she said the sector would require 21,000 cabin crew staff in the next two years.

"There is a huge demand for qualified manpower in this sector and it will grow at a healthy rate in next 10 years as more and more airlines will come to India," she said.

According to Gupta, eastern Indian candidates scored over applicants from southern and northern India because the English accent here was better.

"After western India, the East is going to become major supplier of aviation and hospitality manpower," she said.

AHA was also planning to go overseas in 2006 with branches in west Asia, Sri Lanka and Nepal, according to Gupta.

"Three AHA centres are planned in west Asia and one in Sri Lanka by the first quarter of 2006. One would come up in Kathmandu if the situation there improves," she added. All these would be joint ventures with institutes in those countries.

The promoters of AHA also run other institutes like School of Foreign Languages (SOFL), AHA HR-Solution and Corporate Training Division (ACT).

The group had set a target of Rs 60 crore of revenues in 2005-06 from Rs 20 crore in 2004-05, said Gupta.

AHA was aiming to expand within India using the franchisee route.

The group would be looking at setting up upto 50 finishing schools in smaller Indian cities and towns in 2006.

AHA expected to groom around 3,000 students this year.

"Around 90 per cent of the 1,200 students of the previous batch have been offered job by nearly 30 companies at average annual salary of Rs 1.2-12 lakh," she added.