Former national air carrier, Air India, recently placed the world’s largest aircraft order comprising of 840 planes, including 470 firm and 370 options from plane makers Boeing and Airbus. With the growing fleet, the Tata-owned airline needs an influx of cabin crew members as well as pilots. Air India has now planned to hire over 4200 cabin crew trainees and 900 pilots in 2023 to cater the rapidly expands its domestic and international operations. Air India has already announced plans to lease 36 aircraft of which two B 777-200LR have already joined the fleet.

Between May 2022 and February 2023, Air India hired over 1900 cabin crew and over 1,100 cabin crew have been trained in the last seven months (between July 2022 and January 2023). In the past three months, approximately 500 cabin crew have been released for flying by the airline, as reported by IANS.

Commenting on the hiring plans, Sandeep Verma, Head – Inflight Services said, “With a sizeable aircraft order that was announced earlier in the month, more flights on international and domestic networks, and re-alignment of domestic routes with AIX connect, cabin crew will play a decisive role in shaping the present and future of the Air India group. Addition of fresh talent will also accelerate the pace of cultural transformation at Air India, which is an integral part of our Vihaan. AI transformation programme. We are also looking to step up hiring of more pilots and maintenance engineers.”

The cabin crew, who will be recruited from around the country, will undergo a 15-week programme imparting safety and service skills. Air India stated that the cabin crew will be coached to exemplify the best of Indian hospitality and Tata group culture. The training programme will include classroom and in-flight training at the airline’s training facility in Mumbai as well as familiarisation flights.

After 69 years as a Government-owned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were merged back into the Tata group in January 2022. Similarly, Tata Group will soon merge Air India and Vistara in a landmark deal with Singapore Airlines, that owns 49 percent stake in Vistara, and post merger, will hold 25 percent stake in Air India.