The premier flight carrier plans to add approx. hundred aircrafts, 500 pilots and over 1,500 cabin crew in the coming few years.
India’s airline major, Air India, is planning to expand its fleet size in the next few years. As a result, it may look at hiring about 500 pilots and over 1,500 cabin crew in the next two to three years.
It is apparently looking to have 700 pilots in the next few years, in order to fulfil the requirements following an aggressive plan to add around a hundred aircrafts to the current fleet size. Advertisement for 400 pilots has already been floated.
In August 2015, Air India had planned to recruit 200 trainee pilots (senior trainee pilot license holders who come with A320 endorsement). However, it could select only 78. Now all those pilots are flying on various routes.
In addition, nearly 150 pilots are expected to complete their training by December this year. The present strength of pilots is 858 and the airlines lost about 100 pilots during the last two years.
Air India is also looking to double up its crew size to up to 3000 personnel, and is apparently planning to add 1500 people to its existing cabin crew workforce over the coming two–three years.
With such hiring plans in place the company is also relooking at its training capacity, which currently consists of three simulators in Hyderabad and four in Mumbai. The simulators in Hyderabad belong to A320 while the four in Mumbai belong to the Boeing family.
To add to the existing facility, Air India is also said to be planning to order one more simulator for training on ATR aircrafts, in Hyderabad.
