The Hindu Business Line : Indian approves VRS for 12 cabin crew

New Delhi, Dec. 23 The State-owned airline Indian has approved 12 of the 60 Voluntary Retirement Scheme proposals from cabin crew members that have been received till date. Official sources told Business Line that 48 other proposals were under different stages of processing and the numbers of proposals approved were likely to increase in the coming days.

The airline has also received three proposals for rehabilitation of cabin crew members, which would allow them to start ground staff duty after some training.

The scheme, which was on offer for those cabin crew members who were over 41 years old and had completed 20 years of service, closed at the end of last month.

In addition, those cabin crew members below the age of 50 were also given the option of taking up ground duties at the discretion of the management.

Response moderate

“The response to the scheme has been moderate and cannot be termed as a huge success or a failure,” sources said. The exact financial impact of the VRS package was still being worked out, sources added.

In May this year, the airline board, as a measure to rejuvenate the airline, had approved the VRS scheme which allowed cabin crew to either seek voluntary retirement or shift to doing ground duties rather than flying duties. The scheme offers a compensation package ranging from Rs 13 lakh to Rs 25 lakh depending on the age of the cabin crew.

The airline has a cabin crew strength of about 1,100 of which about 40 per cent were considered eligible to take up the offer.