After a gap of eight years, employment opportunity in the domestic civil aviation sector is opening up with existing and start-up airlines recruiting personnel to scale up/start their operations.
Hiring is taking place in soon-to-be launched Vistara, the full service airline of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines; IndiGo, which is expanding rapidly to retain its market share; AirAsia India, which is scaling up; and to some extent by six start-up airlines, namely, Air One, Premier Air, Zexus Air, Turbo Megha, Air Carnival and Zav Airways, which are waiting for Air Operating Permit (AOP), the final clearance to start operation from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Induction plansWhile the start-up and new airlines are trying to fill key positions by luring senior personnel from existing airlines, others are recruiting staff across all levels in line with their aircraft induction plans. According to estimates by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), domestic airlines will induct about 22 aircraft till March and considering this, they would require about 2,300 staff, which may be filled, to some extent, by already available trained staff rendered jobless following the closure of Kingfisher Airlines two years ago and due to possible downsizing by a low cost airline saddled with debt. “For 2015-16, close to 50 aircraft will be inducted into in the domestic sector as per the current plans of airlines, and nearly 6,000 staff will be required for these aircraft. We see shortages of trained manpower by the end of 2016-17 subject to promised economic transformation of India becoming realisable and aviation industry’s structural barriers getting removed,” said CAPA Chief Executive Officer (South Asia) Kapil Kaul.
Start-up regional airline Air Carnival, which is planning to have an ATR fleet, has announced openings in director level jobs in the area of operations, flight safety, in-flight, engineering, security and ground handling operations.
Other such airlines were also looking for key personnel, industry officials said.
Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) firm AirWorks, which recently bagged an outsourcing contact from Airbus to maintain Vistara’s fleet, is also adding manpower.
Not to be left behind, Air India is also hiring personnel to adhere to Star Alliance standards. Recently it recruited 125 cabin crews. As far as pilots and engineers are concerned, there is more demand for people who are Airbus 320 Family type rated.