Air Hostess Academy to up capacity by 60%

With the boom in the aviation industry, the Air Hostess Academy (AHA), which is growing at the rate of 60 per cent year-on-year, plans to increase its training capacity by 60 per cent this year.

Sapna Gupta, AHA's founder and chief consultant, told Business Standard that the institute plans to start 50:50 joint ventures (JVs) to take the tally of its centres up to 40, training a total of 12,000-15,000 students this year.

"The Rs 30-crore AHA is growing at 60 per cent and will be a Rs 50-crore company by FY 2006-07," said Gupta.

The company has 25 centres spread across the metros and mini-metros or tier-II cities and trains 7,000 students every year. Gupta claimed that the institute has an overall track record of 80-85 per cent placement.

On the list are centres in Jammu, Faridabad, Lucknow, Gurgoan and more cities.

"The institute would have at least one centre in every state," she said, while explaining that there was an acute shortage of crew as national airlines were expected to expand their fleet in addition to international airlines are also hiring Indian crew to support their expansion plans for India.

In the next one year, the academy will open five institutes in Gulf and Asia Pacific. "We will add another 1,700 training capacity in association with local partners in Dubai, Oman, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia," she said.

Speaking of the investments required, she said, "We will expand through 50:50 JVs," adding, "as such, our investment for expansion nationally, is Rs five crore whereas for international ventures, it is Rs 9-10 crore."