The Hindu Business Line : Qatar Air to recruit more cabin crew from India

Mr Al-Baker said keeping in view its huge middle-class population with significant spending power, India has been identified as a key element of Qatar Airways' multi-billion dollar growth plan.

Mumbai , Feb.7

QATAR Airways proposes to recruit more cabin crew from India.

The airline has identified the need for around 1,000 additional cabin crew, and would be sending teams to India shortly for recruitment, according to Mr Akbar Al-Baker, Chief Executive Officer.

Indian crew, he said, "understood and shared the same cultural values as Qatari nationals," and formed a large proportion of the total cabin crew staff in the airline.

The airline also plans to recruit Indian pilots. The airline currently operates 28 services to India every week. This comprises daily flights to four destinations, namely, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It is keen to add to these destinations, particularly to Delhi and Chennai.He said keeping in view its huge middle-class population with significant spending power, India has been identified as a key element of Qatar Airways' multi-billion dollar growth plan.

As part of its strategy to "build on existing ties with India," the airline would look beyond adding flights and new destinations to India. Qatar Airways, Mr Al-Baker said, was keen to develop tourism between the two countries as well.

Mr Al-Baker, who took over as the Chairman of the Qatar Tourism Council last month, is in the process of drafting a master plan for tourism.

On his plans for developing tourism between the two countries, he said, "We would first like to bring more Qataris to India." He added that Qatar had the potential to emerge as an important commercial tourist destination, driven by the available infrastructure for "value-for-money" shopping jaunts.

As part of its plans, the council would also open tourism offices across the globe, including one each in Mumbai and Delhi. Offices planned in Europe would work to boost tourist flows from these countries to India as well, he said.

While evincing an interest in investing in aviation infrastructure in India, he added that this would follow the drafting of a clear strategy on private participation in such projects.

"Past history shows that attempts to privatise this sector have fallen through due to the lack of a clear strategy on the same; this has dampened the interest of several foreign airlines that have come forward to invest in aviation infrastructure."

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