Air India gets busy with VRS before disinvestment

With average age at 55 years, a large number of employees are close to retirement, making VRS negotiation easier

The government is counting on the average age of 55 years among the non-technical Air India employees as a human resources (HR) blessing, ahead of disinvestment of the state-owned carrier.

With a large number of employees left with only three years for superannuation, the government is negotiating a generous voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) as part of the sale process. The retirement age at Air India is 58 years. 

Air India and its five subsidiaries together have around 22,000 employees. Of these, Air India has around 12,000, including 897 pilots and 2,750 cabin crew. The pilots and cabin crew primarily make up the