Turbulence ends, airlines begin hiring pilots, crew
Turbulence ends, airlines begin hiring pilots, crew
10 Feb 2010, 0600 hrs IST, Anshul Dhamija, TNN
BANGALORE: After a year of turbulence, the aviation sector is now seeing a resurgence in hiring. Last year, during the peak of the downturn, the industry witnessed scenes of tears and mass protests by cabin crew personnel and pilots, as the sector went on a layoff spree.
But now, with passenger load factors having increased by 30% in the last quarter over the same quarter a year ago, and with further growth expected, some airlines, especially the low-cost carriers, are going in for an expansion. Moreover, airlines that had downsized their capacity last year are now thinking of adding capacity. This has opened up the job market, as some airlines have begun hiring pilots, co-pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
Industry analysts call this a ‘quiet resurgence in hiring’ as the aviation sector is still to fly out of the red. Besides, with foreign carriers poaching Indian talent, many vacancies have arisen that some airlines are trying to fill.
According to Kapil Kaul, CEO for the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East, at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), hiring has been initiated by low-cost carriers like Spicejet, IndiGo and Go Air, as they have plans to add new aircraft and expand their services this year.
Between the three low-cost carriers, around 12-15 new aircraft would be added by the end of this year. A Spicejet official confirmed to TOI that the airline would be receiving 5 new aircraft this year and that the company had a hiring agenda . But he refused to give further details.
IATA, the international air transport association, in its latest quarterly business confidence survey of airline CFOs, states that though job cuts were still happening in the fourth quarter of 2009, for the first time since April 2008, a majority of CFOs now expect to increase or hold employment steady in the year ahead.
“We are extremely bullish on hiring pilots, co-pilots, and cabin crew, as we have aggressive plans to increase the network,” said M Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount Airways. Paramount, the south-based full service carrier, currently operates around 72 flights a day. By the end of this calendar year it will increase its daily operations to around 120 flights, a growth of 67%.
A senior official of a full-service airline, who asked not to be named, told TOI that the airline was hiring in order to fill vacancies that had arisen due to high attrition. The attrition rate is pegged between 15% and 20%.
Kaul thinks that mass hiring, the kind that the Indian aviation sector had witnessed in its heydays, would happen post the third quarter of the next financial year.
Turbulence ends, airlines begin hiring pilots, crew- Jobs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
Third quarter of the next financial year = Late 2011 ??