No takers: Air India fails to get a single applicant as it tries to hire new captains

Just a week after the Air India pilots union —Indian Commercial Pilots Association— asked its members not to operate flights with commanders ( captains) which the airline proposes to hire on contract, the national carrier’s plan to recruit captains directly through a walk-in interview did not even attract a single applicant. Sources told Firstpost that even though walk-in interviews were organised in Hyderabad this week as part of Air India’s efforts to fill up 197 vacancies, that include those for first officers, for its Airbus fleet, not a single captain turned up as no one wanted to join the airline on a contract basis. The airline is looking to hire the commanders and senior trainee pilots on a five-year contract, which would be extended for another five years if they are satisfied with their performance. For senior trainee pilots, the airline has kept a cut-off age limit of 35 years and states that the total training cost would be borne by the selected candidate and would be recovered from his salary through EMIs during the contract period. [caption id=“attachment_2061625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File Photo/Flickr[/caption] Of late Air India has been losing pilots to rivals IndiGo and Etihad due to the state-owned carrier’s decision to place them on a contractual employment. Last fiscal, the carrier hired just one pilot while there was no recruitment of pilots in 2013-14 period. Prior to that, two pilots were hired in 2012-13 fiscal while the number stood at 39 during 2011-12 financial year. A pilot told Firstpost on condition of anonymity that even though they are hired on a contract basis with IndiGo, the airline offers senior captains a joining bonus of anything ranging between Rs 30-40 lakh, which is not the case with Air India. The loss-making national carrier has come under severe criticism from its existing pilots for issuing an advertisement seeking commanders and first-officers as a bulk of its pilots are awaiting opportunities to upgrade from their existing positions. On 2 March, 2015 the ICPA, in a letter to airline Chairman and Managing Director Rohit Nanadan, urged for a uniform carrier progression for the pilots. “We are aghast by your continuous and relentless efforts in denting our morale, for what else explains this latest advertisement of contractual direct hiring of A-320 captains, when we have sufficient in-house experience and infrastructure to train co-pilots who are long due for career progression as Commanders. They have been desperately waiting to see some ‘acche din’,” the ICPA letter said. Stating that the ICPA has long been demanding for a unified career progression policy so as to benefit from the combined pool of pilots in Air India by optimum use, the letter said, “Our first officer’s who have been with the airline in the most testing times and have shown loyalty all throughout deserve to be upgraded to commanders as part of a unified career policy and any attempt to para-drop contractual pilots from outside will be gross injustice to the pilot cadre of Air India.”