The Hindu Business Line : Kingfisher academy to create talent bank for ‘aviation hospitality’

“Such is the demand for cabin crew in the aviation industry,” according to Mr V. Raja, Regional Head, South East Asia and South India, Kingfisher Airlines.

Speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of a two-day training programme for travel agents in Chennai, Mr Raja said that the Academy would provide talent for the entire industry, not just for Kingfisher Airlines.

The training programme, which was conducted by faculty from the Academy, trained representatives of travel agents in a variety of soft skills.

Talent shortage

The need for such training has been well recognised. Today, 10 airlines operate 292 aircraft in the domestic market.

Even at this level, the industry is feeling the pinch of talent shortage.

But all these airlines have placed orders for additional 480 aircraft. Even that is only for the short term.

Long term aircraft fleet strength estimates vary, but they all agree that it will be huge.

Boeing believes that airlines in India will operate 1,140 aircraft by 2025, while the Ministry of Civil Aviation estimates the figure could be much higher sooner, 2,000 aircraft by 2015.

The shortage of other key personnel such as pilots and air traffic controllers is even more pronounced.

Currently, there are 1,800 pilots in India and an additional 2,400 pilots are needed by 2010.

“Training pilots is an especially long gestation process with low success rate,” notes an Assocham study on the subject.

While the problem of pilot shortage is being addressed with some sense of urgency — airline operators have arrangements with aircraft manufacturers for training pilots and are in the process of buying flight simulators — the gap in other personnel, such as cabin crew is still open.

To address this, Kingfisher Training Academy would open outlets in tier-II cities such as Coimbatore and Mysore, Mr Raja said.