Domestic airlines are once again staring at multiple problems, including a tussle for talent, as the aviation market revives after the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years.
Last week, flight schedules of IndiGo, India’s largest airline, went haywire. The airline reported its worst on-time performance over the weekend as employees took leave at the last minute. That resulted in more than 56 percent of the airline's flights getting delayed on July 2.
Many airline officials said IndiGo’s employees took leave on July 2 to appear for walk-in interviews by Air India and Air India Express.
Airlines in India appear to be constantly grappling with one crisis or another – high fuel prices, passenger load factors, customer service, safety standards and competition. The highly competitive Indian aviation market has already claimed many victims, the most recent being Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways.
Incidents such as poaching of staff are only expected to rise in the months ahead as Air India, under new ownership, debutant Akasa Air, and a revived Jet Airways all look to hire pilots and cabin crew.
Poaching of talent
At the senior-most level, both Akasa Air and Jet Airways have hired former employees of incumbent airlines. Poaching has now started for mid-level executives, pilots and cabin crew.
About 30 pilots from IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoFirst have been offered jobs by Akasa Air, a senior airline executive said. He added that while Akasa Air isn’t doling out large salary hikes, it is offering employee stock options to new hires.
“New players are being cautious not to splurge because of being bootstrapped, but older players have taken a massive hit on their balance sheets,” the executive said.
An official from Air India, which was taken over by the Tata Group in January, said about 1,600 people opted for the voluntary retirement scheme that was rolled out in June and the airline has to hire replacements in the next six months.
“The airlines do not have time to build talent and will need to hire from the market. In this case, the existing leader will face the brunt,” said Nitin Sethi, chief executive officer of human capital business at consulting firm Aon India.
Last week, Nakul Tuteja, vice president of human resources and administration at Jet Airways, said the airline received 10,000 unsolicited applications in addition to those received for specific openings in the past six months.
IndiGo is also being proactive, according to a report in the Business Standard, hiring for replacement and expansion.
“Around 1,500 cabin crew are under training and will join operations over the next few weeks,” a senior executive from IndiGo told Business Standard.
A senior airline executive said discussions with pilot and cabin crew unions revealed that salary was the top priority of employees after two years of wage cuts.
“Most airlines haven’t restored pre-Covid level salaries. This presents an opportunity for others to poach them,” he said.
IndiGo had cut salaries of employees by 28 percent in 2020 and had restored salaries by 16 percent as of last week. SpiceJet restored the salaries of captains and first officers by 10 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Salaries of trainers at SpiceJet have been restored by 20 percent.
The Tata Group restored Air India employee salaries by almost 75 per cent from pre-Covid levels, while Vistara has reinstated its pilots’ salaries and flying allowances to pre-pandemic levels.
GoFirst has restored salaries of its employees to about 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Demand in aviation
Staffing firm TeamLease Services said last month it expects hiring in aviation to rise over the next two quarters.
Ajoy Thomas, vice president and business head at TeamLease Services, said that despite conversations around automation, the aviation sector will continue to be predominantly people-focussed.
“Overall, as per industry sentiments, we are expecting hiring to pick up by 30 percent in the next two quarters,” he said.
VK Singh, the minister of state for civil aviation, said in a parliamentary answer that India needs 1,000 fresh commercial pilots every year. However, the industry estimates that Indian aviation will add at least 80 aircraft every year for the next five years and would need 1,100 to 1,500 pilots every year to cater to the growing fleets and make up for the current shortage.
“With most airlines in expansion mode and looking to add more than 100 aircraft by the end of 2023, we believe the industry could add up to 18,000 jobs (direct and indirect) across levels and functions in the same time period,” said Paul Dupuis, managing director at Randstad India.
Abhinav Singh, founder of Hercules Aviation Training School, said the country needs at least 1,500 pilots per year to meet demand.
According to a report by CAPA – Centre for Aviation, India will require an additional 17,000 pilots in the next 10 years, of which 9,000 first officers will be upgraded to commanders.
While Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air has ordered 72 Boeing 737 Max jets, Jet Airways is expected to order new planes in the next couple of months. IndiGo, Air India, GoFirst, Vistara and SpiceJet also plan to expand their fleets.
Air India is expected to order as many as 300 narrow-body jets in the next few months. IndiGo has more than 550 Airbus A320neos and A321neos on order and the airline will look to expand its fleet to 300 by 2024-25.
GoFirst plans to take delivery of 10 aircraft a year until 2024-25 and another 72 aircraft between 2024-25 and 2026-27. SpiceJet plans to take delivery of seven Boeing 737 Max jets this year while the carrier negotiates deliveries of its order for 155 Boeing planes.
All these airlines will need to hire pilots, cabin crew, ground handling staff and engineering employees to operate their growing fleet in the next few years.
Shortage of crew
Before the pandemic, the Indian aviation sector faced a deficit of 500 pilots, 1,350 cabin crew and about 6,500 ground-handling staff, data from TeamLease showed. This deficit is expected to have widened as the 34 flying schools in India were closed for most of 2020 and started limited operations in 2021.
Last July, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture flagged the shortage of pilots in India as a matter of grave concern. The committee underlined the need for the Ministry of Civil Aviation to proactively introduce tailor-made courses to enhance skill development, research and training and to give serious thought to establishing new flying training schools adjacent to at least one airport in each state.
Government data shows that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued about 3,300 commercial pilot licences in India in the past five years, equivalent to 660 licences a year, or about half the current requirement.
This creates demand for more flying schools in India. While the Airports Authority of India approved the setting up of nine more flying schools last year, executives said this may not be enough.
“Around eight new flight schools have started operations in January and it is important to increase the capacity of aviation training infrastructure and continuously work towards improving the quality of training as well,” Abhinav Singh of Hercules Aviation said.
AAI officials said they invited bids to open 15 new aviation schools at 10 airports in India in March.
“The aim is to set up 15 new flying training organisations at Cooch Behar, Tezu, Jharsuguda, Deoghar, Meerut, Kishangarh, Hubli, Kadapa, Bhavnagar and Salem airports and start training by next year,” a senior AAI official said.
He added that AAI will look to invite bids to set up more flying training schools by the end of 2022.
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