LONDON – With the return surge in travel demand this year, Indian Tata Group carrier Air India recently put out a call for prospective cabin crew applicants. The close off date for submissions was 26 September.
Air India have now reported that they were inundated with over 73,000 applications for flight crew and cabin crew positions.
A report by Livemint indicates that as of Thursday this week, the Indian flag carrier had received a stunning 72,000 applications for cabin crew positions over the last two months, as well as 1,752 pilot applications.
The airline had reportedly received in excess of 25,000 applications in a little over a week from management postgraduates with three years’ experience in ground-based roles.
Air India has a spread of positions on offer at its new tech facility in Kerala, which includes a range of specialist roles including developers, architects, cyber security professionals, programme managers and UX visual designers.
This is the first time that the airline has recruited for positions in non-operational areas in over a decade and a half. According to India’s finance media website Livemint, the carrier stated the following with respect to its invitation to air crew applicants:
“The airline’s aggressive expansion plan, which has already seen 17 long-grounded aircraft return to the skies with 12 more to follow, and the lease-in of 30 narrow- and wide-body aircraft over the next 12 months, also necessitates a significant expansion in the flying crew.”
Chief Human Resources Officer Suresh Dutt Tripathi stated:”Our talent acquisition initiative is focused on identifying and recruiting the right talent in order to ensure that our human resource capabilities keep pace with the growth momentum and evolving needs of the organisation.”
“The induction of new generation talent is also essential to bring about cultural change that will make Air India an employer of choice.”
Possible Air India merger with Vistara
The news of the mass response to Air India’s call for talent comes just week’s after ongoing reporting on the possibility of a merger between the carrier and it’s Tata Group stable mate Vistara.
Speaking last month with respect to the prospect of a merger with Air India, the Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan had commented: “All possibilities are being discussed. Since we are a joint venture, the two shareholders will have to discuss a road-map for the future.”
“Whether it’s going to be a merger, or we will have two separate airlines are all options that are still on the table,” he concluded.
Air India and Vistara are presently the only two full-service carrier operating in India. Both airlines operate the Airbus A320 aircraft on domestic operations.
