Indian Airlines to beef up cabin crew strength

Carrier to hire 400 staff to overcome shortage.

In the largest hiring drive ever by an Indian carrier, Indian Airlines plans to induct over 400 cabin crew immediately.

The move will raise the state-run carrier's cabin crew strength by over 40 per cent. At the end of the last financial year, Indian Airlines had a cabin crew strength of around 1,000.

The hiring initiative comes at a time when the airline is close to inducting 43 new planes into its fleet. The carrier also plans to add additional flights on domestic as well as international routes.

"The new round of hiring will take care of the requirement of Indian Airlines in the medium to the long term," said an Indian Airlines executive.

Moreover, with new aircraft coming in, the carrier will also have to meet the regulatory requirements regarding cabin crew. The present norms require a cabin staff for every 50 seats on an airline's fleet.

"We see traffic growing considerably. With new routes and services, Indian Airlines will require additional cabin crew," said an executive with Indian Airlines.

Indian Airlines has a shortage of 259 cabin crew staff in its sourthern sector. It also requires about 104 cabin crew members in its operations in the northern region. For the western region operations, Indian Airlines has a requirement of 50 cabin crew members.

Besides, the airline had also lost some of its staff to new carriers. It is not just Indian Airlines that is facing the shortage of cabin crew. As per the industry estimate, India today faces cabin crew shortage to the tune of about 30 per cent.

"With about seven to eight new carriers planned in India, it is expected that there will be some amount of poaching from the existing carriers. Poaching will not just happen in the case of pilots and engineers, but in the case of cabin crew as well. In the case of some of the new carriers, they have started operations with crew mostly from some of the existing carriers," said an aviation industry analyst.