The Kochi-headquartered Air India Express is witnessing a ‘decline in its operations' in spite of the steady rise in passenger movement between Kerala and the Gulf.
“The critical shortage of operating crew has brought down the number of lines from 18 to somewhere around 14-15 at least during the past one year,” airline sources said.
The low-cost carrier had a fleet of 21 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, of which 18 were available for operation at any point of time.
There was a requirement of at least 126 commanders as against the current strength of 94 for the AIE to keep all its lines running, sources said. “To enable the optimum utilization of these aircraft, the airline now requires at least six commanders per aircraft as against the current equation of just four pilots,” they held, adding that the refurbishment of cockpit resources will also augment the hours of operation for each aircraft by at least 90 minutes.
The situation would become more complicated with the full-fledged operation of the recently launched aircraft maintenance unit in Thiruvanathapuram, which is expected to roll out one more aircraft in line.
“Our intention is to take the total lines of operations to 19 while enhancing the efficiency of operations through resource optimization,” a senior airline official said.
For AIE, Kerala was an important market in terms of capacity and air connectivity with as many as 17 aircraft operating out of the three airports in the State. Presently, it operated 130-odd services per week from the State, a majority of these to various destinations in the Middle-East.
As part of attempts to build up capacity, the airline would start a pilot recruitment program that envisaged keeping open the offer of employment for selected candidates till the advertised vacancies got filled.
The selection process would be continuous with no deadlines for submitting the application while a selection panel would screen applications as per requirement.
In an attempt to lure pilots to work in Kerala, the airline had announced a ‘hardship allowance' of Rs.1 lakh a month for those willing to be based in Kochi, Thiruvanathapuram, Kozhikode, Mangalore, and Tiruchirapally.
The upper age limit for the post of captain was 56 years for permanent employment. Those above 56 would be engaged on contract. For the trainee captain posts, the upper age limit was 45 years and co-pilots 40 years.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com
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