Tata Group-owned Air India on July 1 said it will set up a training institute at Amravati in Maharashtra with an aim to train 180 commercial pilots annually.

“The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-licensed Flight Training Organisation (FTO) at the Belora Airport will be the largest such institute in South Asia and become operational from the first quarter of next financial year,” Air India said in a statement.

According to the airline, the upcoming facility will be the first by any Indian airline in the country and will have 31 single-engine aircraft and three twin-engine aircraft for training.

Air India said it has got the tender from the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) to establish and operate the facility for 30 years.

“The FTO at Amravati will be a significant step towards making Indian aviation more self-reliant and offering more opportunities to the youth in India to fulfil their ambitions of flying as pilots. The young pilots coming out of this FTO will fuel Air India’s ambition of becoming a world-class airline, as it moves ahead in its transformation journey,” said Campbell Wilson, Managing Director and CEO at Air India.

“The facility, which will be developed on 10 acres, will have digitally-enabled classrooms, hostels on a par with global academies, a digitised operation centre, and a maintenance unit,” Air India said.

“The FTO will be operational by Q1 FY26 and offer aspiring pilots an opportunity to undergo training with world-class curricula on a par with best-in-class global schools,” said Sunil Bhaskaran, Director, Aviation Academy, Air India.

The collaborative initiative between MADC and Air India will not only boost the economy of Maharashtra by focussing on more than 3,000 new employment opportunities within the aviation sector, but also create employment in multifarious allied activities in skilling, technical and small entrepreneurial ventures culminating in an impressive contribution of more than ₹1,000 crore to the State’s GDP over the next decade,” said Swati Pandey, vice-chairman & Managing Director of MADC.

New Delhi:

Air India Express on Thursday cancelled at least 74 flights as a section of cabin crew was fired, a day after nearly 300 employees of the airline called in sick and switched off their phones.

Flights that were cancelled were on domestic and international routes and were scheduled to fly from Chennai to Kolkata, Chennai to Singapore, Trichy to Singapore, and Jaipur to Mumbai. Scores of flights were also delayed on key routes.

The cabin crew shortage at the low-cost airline, a subsidiary of Air India now owned by the Tata group, has resulted in the cancellations of more than 100 flights since Tuesday and about 15,000 passengers have been reportedly affected.

The Air India Express employees have been protesting against the new employment terms, according to sources.

The crew, the sources said, has alleged a lack of equality in the treatment of staff and claimed that some staff members have been offered lower job roles despite clearing interviews for senior positions.

The crew has also flagged some modifications in their compensation package. The developments come as the airline is in the middle of a merger with AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India.

Air India Express To Curtail Flights

As the flight delays and cancellations snowballed into a full-blown crisis, Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh said that the number of flights being operated will be reduced over the next few days.

“The disruptions have cascaded across the network, forcing us to curtail the schedules over the next few days. We had to do this to cope with the non-availability of crew and to recover schedules,” Mr Singh wrote to employees.

In his letter, he said that over 100 cabin crew members had reported sick, severely disrupting operations, and that the impact was “disproportionate” because the action was taken by senior employees.

“This act is certainly not representative of the 2,000-odd cabin crew colleagues in the company who continue to respond to the call of duty and serve our guests with dedication and pride. I am thankful to all who are standing by the airline in this hour of crisis,” he added.

An Air India Express spokesperson said on Wednesday that the management is engaging with the crew to understand the reasons behind the mass leave and added that they are working to minimise inconvenience to the fliers.

Air India Express Fires 30 Cabin Crew Members

Air India Express has now sacked at least 30 cabin crew after they called in sick at the last minute. The termination letter issued to them said that the mass leave “clearly points to a pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason”.

“Your act is not only subversive of public interest, but has also caused embarrassment, severe reputational damage, and serious monetary loss to the Company. Your act of reporting sick for work amounts to a concerted action with a common understanding, to not operate the flight and to disrupt the services of the Company. This is not only in violation of the applicable laws but also violates the Air India Express Limited Employees’ Service Rules as are applicable to you,” the letter said.

According to sources, the management has given all the Air India Express employees on mass leave a deadline of 4 pm (Thursday) to return to work or face action.

The management is also likely to hold a town hall meeting with cabin crew members on Thursday evening.

File picture of Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan
| Photo Credit: KAMAL NARANG

After facing significant flight disruptions recently, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan on Thursday told the airline staff that the “worst is behind us” and operations have already stabilised.

Pilot woes have forced the Tata Group airline to temporarily cut down capacity by 10% or 25-30 flights daily.

While acknowledging that things should have been planned better, Mr. Kannan said it has been a “learning experience”.

He also said it has been a challenging start to the new financial year and the airline faced significant operational disruption from March 31 to April 2.

“The anxiety and frustration felt by our customers was matched in even measure to the pain that all of us felt in seeing our much-loved brand drawing negative commentary from various quarters… I assure you that the worst is behind us, and we have already stabilised our operations, with our on-time performance (OTP) increasing to 89 per cent on 9 April 2024 (second highest among all Indian airlines),” he said in a message to the staff.

The full-service carrier has around 6,500 people, including about 1,000 pilots.

In the wake of the disruptions, the top management of the airline had held a virtual meeting with the pilots. One of the reasons for the disruptions was also that some section of pilots reporting sick to protest against the new contract that will result in pay revision.

According to Mr. Kannan, there were a multitude of reasons for the disruptions, including ATC delays, bird hits, and maintenance activities early last month.

“We were stretched in our pilot rosters and there was not enough resilience to withstand injects that we would otherwise have weathered. We could and should have planned better, and this has been a learning experience for us which we will review thoroughly,” the Vistara chief said.

Most of the cancellations were in the domestic network and the carrier is working on plans for May and beyond.

“While the events of the last week may seem like a setback, the hallmark of our organisation has always been that we have bounced back from tough situations ‘ and emerged stronger.

“… I trust each of you to continue to put in all efforts to ensure that we do not let our brand, and our customer, down,” Mr. Kannan said.

As we emerge from this difficult phase, he said it is this commitment to being a customer-oriented airline that will help it bounce back stronger.

The airline has also reached out to customers impacted by the cancellations and delays over the affected period.

“We have provided the necessary compensation as per the regulatory mandate, and have also offered additional service recovery vouchers for passengers whose flights were significantly delayed,” the Vistara chief said.

The carrier has 70 aircraft in its fleet and is to operate more than 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule.

“Dealing with disappointed customers is never easy but amidst all the chaos, we have received feedback on how some of you went beyond the call of duty to assist our customers to the extent possible,” Mr. Kannan said and expressed gratitude to the pilots for cooperating and stepping up to support operations.

New Delhi:

Air India will induct two A350 aircraft this year for which it has received DGCA approval and expects to have six such planes in its fleet by the end of March 2024, according to officials.

Steered by the Tata Group, the loss-making Air India is expanding its fleet as well as operations. In February, the carrier placed an order for 470 aircraft, including 40 A350-900/1000 planes.

The officials in the know said, Air India has received the Letter of Type Acceptance (LoTA) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for inducting two A350 aircraft — A350-900 and A350-1000.

Both planes will be powered by Rolls Royce engines.

An official at the airline said it will be inducting the two wide body aircraft this year.

By the end of March next year, Air India expects to have a total of six A350 planes, the official added.

Currently, Air India, which was taken over by the Tata Group from the government in January last year, has a fleet of 126 planes. This includes 52 wide body Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft.

In a message to the staff on July 21, Air India chief Campbell Wilson had said that around a third of its total wide body fleet will feature modern seats and in-flight entertainment systems by March 2024.

“By the end of this financial year, the six new A350s, together with the 5 leased B-772 LRs and 9 other B-777 ERs we’re also inducting, will mean that our wide body fleet will have grown in size by 30 per cent within a year,” he had said.

Air India has placed orders for 470 planes with Airbus and Boeing. The Airbus firm order comprises 210 A320/321 Neo/XLR and 40 A350-900/1000, while the Boeing firm order comprises 190 737-Max, 20 787s and 10 777s. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)