The Hindu : National : Air India plans to hire laid-off Jet Airways staff

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Air India plans to hire laid-off Jet Airways staff

This will help it to save considerable time and costs

Mumbai: The Air India is believed to be toying with the idea of hiring some of the laid-off Jet employees, as it would save time and cost on training.

“Air India has plans to hire cabin-crew. However, instead of recruiting freshers and then spending time and money on training them, we are mulling recruiting some of those laid-off by the Jet,” a source closely connected to the development told PTI here.

The Air India management is of the view that this move would help make considerable savings in both time and costs, besides fast-forwarding the recruitment process, the source said.

He, however, declined to reveal the number of personnel the national air carrier plans to take on board.

Jet Airways, plagued by mounting losses, recently laid off some of its cabin crew.

The industry practice is that prior to hiring, eligible candidates are put through a Group Dynamics and Personality Assessment Test (GD&PAT) before being called for personal interviews.

“If we induct already well-trained staff, we can deploy them directly into our aircraft without any wastage of time.

“They would, at the most, require about a week’s orientation,” the source said.

National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which is the holding company of the Air India and the Indian, currently has around 3,900 cabin crew, both senior and junior staff, on its roll.

The NACIL plans to induct 30 aircraft in the current financial year.

These include seven Boeing 777, four Boeing 737-800 and 19 aircraft of the Airbus 320 family, comprising A319s, A320s and A-321s.

The state-run air carrier currently operates a fleet of 153 aircraft. — PTI

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