It is not only air connectivity to tier-II and tier-III cities that domestic players are planning, but also on their agenda is recruitment from non-metros to meet the growing requirements for trained manpower for their expanding fleets.
A look at some of the recent announcements made during the year indicates that fleet and connectivity expansion is high on the agenda of most domestic carriers.
SpiceJet, for example, is inducting over 23 new aircraft to its fleet by 2008 and is planning services to new destinations - including Guwahati, Tirupati and Vijaywada - this year.
Similarly, Air Deccan will be adding one aircraft every month to its fleet for the next five years and is planning to increase its daily services from 72 destinations to 250 destinations, including tier-II and tier-III cities.
For the expansion mooted by the booming aviation industry, the manpower requirement is expected to grow at 25-30 per cent a year.
Ajay Jasra, public relations officer, SpiceJet, said, "On an average, each aircraft requires 36 in-flight crew - air hostesses and flight stewards/ attendants and eight-ten licensed engineers."
Speaking on the recruitment spree at Air Deccan, the airline's head of in-flight services Vijaya Lukose said, "We are hiring 30-60 people a month and make it a point to visit at least five non-metros during the year."
The airline tapped places like Cochin, Trivandrum, Dehradun, Agra, Pune and Chandigarh for potential candidates in the past.
Jet Airways, the domestic market leader, has also placed orders for 17 Boeing 737-800 or -900 planes, of which 10 will be bought and the rest leased, over the next 24-30 months.
Vijay Mallya undertakes the biggest fleet expansion as Kingfisher Airlines has order deliveries scheduled up to 2012. It has orders for 40 A320 Airbus aircraft, five Airbus superjumbo A380s, five A350s and five A330s.
Pointing out to the trend of even foreign carriers hiring Indian crew, Sapna Gupta, founder and chief consultant, Air Hostess Academy, said, "By 2010, when India hosts the Commonwealth Games, the hospitality and aviation industries will require one crore trained resources, whereas supply will be limited to only 50-60 lakh students passing out of training institutes."
With all airlines recruiting mainly from metros, the hunt for quality personnel has now percolated to non-metro towns where both infrastructure and culture for education are good.
With a mixed crew consisting of people from non-metros like Allahabad, Nagpur, Lucknow and Chandigarh, to name a few, Jasra said benefits are that they are more stable and less prone to job-hopping, besides being easy to mould.
"We have realised during the training programmes that a crew from non-metros does not come with any pre-conceived notions and is easier to mould than a crew from metros," he said.
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