Air India to hire 900 pilots, 4,200 cabin crew this year

Tata Group-owned Air India will hire 900 pilots and 4,200 cabin crew trainees as the airline inducts new aircraft to expand its operations.

Sandeep Verma, head of Air India Inflight Services, said the carrier is looking to step up hiring of more pilots and maintenance engineers. "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," Verma said.

AirAsia India was renamed AIX Connect in December 2022 after Malaysia-based AirAsia sold its entire stake in the no-frills carrier to Air India.

The cabin crew will be recruited from across the country and will undergo a 15-week training programme. The coaching will include extensive classroom and in-flight training at the airline’s facility in Mumbai. Air India has hired over 1,900 cabin crew and 285 pilots between April 2022 and February 2023.

The announcement comes days after the airline placed the biggest aircraft order ever to buy 470 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus for a total value of $80 billion, with options for another 370 aircraft. The full order at 840 planes is bigger than the total operating fleet of all Indian carriers combined currently.

Out of 470 planes, Air India will buy 250 aircraft from Airbus — 40 wide-body A350 planes and 210 narrow-body aircraft. It will also purchase 220 Boeing planes for $34 billion.

The Tata-owned airline has already announced plans to lease 36 aircraft of which two Boeing 777-200LR have already joined the fleet.

The addition of fresh talent will also accelerate the pace of cultural transformation at Air India, which is an integral part of its Vihaan.AI transformation programme, said the airline.

India's overall domestic air passenger traffic nearly doubled in January 2023 as compared to the same period last year, with 125.42 lakh passengers flying in the month as compared to 64.08 lakh during the same period last year, an annual and monthly growth of 95.72% each, according to the latest data released by aviation regulator DGCA.

Air India is currently India's second largest domestic carrier with a market share of 9.2% in January.

According to a February report by aviation consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), Indian carriers are expected to place orders for 1,500-1,700 aircraft over the next 24 months.

Rival IndiGo is reportedly in talks to purchase "several hundred aircrafts" from European aircraft maker Airbus, French publication Les Echos quoted Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire as saying. The deal could be signed at the Paris Air Show in June, the report said.