LONDON – IndiGo could be facing a mass exodus of staff via potential poaching from Air India, where walk-in interviews took place and resulted in 900 flights being delayed.
According to ANI News, an industry source said the following:
“The second phase of Air India’s recruitment process was scheduled for Saturday and most of the cabin crew members of IndiGo who took leave had gone for it.”
“This means that the crew members of Indigo had gone to join the recruitment process of Air India after taking leave in the name of the illness. Due to this, more than 900 flights of Indigo got delayed across the country”.
Air India’s recruitment days took place on June 28 and July 1 and were for the recruitment of cabin crew staff at the airline.
This, of course, had therefore thrown IndiGo’s flights into disrepute as a result. Because of this, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has requested an explanation from IndiGo.
No explanation has been requested on the Air India side, as the damage came more from the IndiGo side.
Poaching for the Betterment of Air India?
With TATA-owned Air India looking to position itself into a far better position than it was months ago, this is a bold move from Air India.
Such poaching has worked out for them, and also shows that Air India is looking to provide better conditions for cabin crew staff as opposed to IndiGo.
It obviously speaks significant volumes if the staff at IndiGo are calling in sick, and then also going for interviews at Air India’s recruitment days instead.
For Air India, it is unclear how many cabin staff they are after, but with a potential order on the way for Airbus A350 aircraft, this would make sense that such recruitment is underway.
Why No Strike Action Instead?
Maybe this mass sickness is a form of strike action, as there hasn’t been any substantial action from IndiGo staff in recent times.
If anything, on a speculative note as well, maybe there is a culture within IndiGo that is encouraging staff to attend interviews at Air India instead.
Proving that is the case, of course, is hard to prove. But if that does become the case, then that will be interesting to see how that develops moving forward.
Either way, it remains clear that IndiGo has got a new challenge to face, and that is to keep its existing staff on board in order to minimize defection over to Air India instead.
Overall…
It remains clear that Air India is obviously offering more to staff than what meets the eye. With proper financial backing now, this is where we see the conversion.
With A350s potentially on the way, it makes sense for Air India to kickstart recruitment, especially if the delivery timetable is not too far away either.
With the Farnborough Air Show not far away, it will only be a matter of time before we see any form of confirmation on this order, which if anything would bolster the reasoning for cabin crew recruitment going forward.
