The Indian Airlines board on Wednesday cleared an attractive voluntary retirement scheme for its 500-odd cabin crew. Under the scheme, cabin crew between the age of 41 and 58 will get Rs 13 lakh (Rs 1.3 million) to Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) compensation depending on the number of years left in service.

Industry experts said Indian Airlines is offering a substantial premium over the usual VRS schemes as it is desperate to give a young look to its cabin crew. State Bank of India had paid a maximum compensation (pre-tax) of Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) to officers who opted for early retirement under the exit scheme floated in 2006-07.

The quantum of package for award staff, predominantly clerical employees was Rs 800,000. IA has not even named it a VRS scheme and preferred to call it a "rehabilitation and redeployment" package.

The airline has also attached a clause to this scheme saying that cabin crews can switch over to other jobs within the airline by taking less compensation.

The compensation will be in addition to the existing post-retirement benefits. Further, cabin crew who are below the age of 50 years can opt for ground duties at the discretion of the company. Such cabin crew will receive the benefit of an additional monthly compensatory allowance ranging from Rs.15,000 to Rs 50,000 per month within specified limits.

The government-controlled airline, which will soon merge with Air-India, has also amended its recruitment conditions so as to appoint cabin crew with qualification of 10+2 and experience.

Traditionally, Indian Airlines was recruiting graduates as cabin crew.

This move is aimed at targeting professional and young cabin crew of other airlines and to reduce the average age of the cabin crew.

At present, Indian Airlines has crew members between 40 and 58 years at various slabs out of its total strength of 1,300.

The average salary drawn by Indian Airlines cabin crew is between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000 a month.

About lowering the qualifications, Indian chairman and managing director Vishwapati Trivedi said, "We have interacted with a lot of cabin crew of other airlines. They consider Indian Airlines as a great employer. This measure will attract a lot of cabin crew from private airlines to Indian."

He added, "Moreover, we are planning to recruit over 100 young and professional cabin crew in the next three to six months. We are targeting cabin crew of other airlines who are having dynamism and new energy to excel."