Emirates to hire Indian crew, ties up with air hostess academie

Mumbai: The Dubai-based Emirates airline, the largest customer of Airbus including the A380, is hoping to employ more airhostesses and staff from India, heightening competition in a market where local airlines are finding it hard to secure talent. The shortage of airhostesses has hit the Gulf air carrier and Emirates is eyeing overseas markets for trained manpower, especially from India.
According to a source, Emirates is working to hire people from different air hostess training institutes in India and is considering tie-ups or contracts with institutes and academies. The airline has formed an understanding and arrangement with Air Hostess Academy (AHA) for short listing cabin crew. This alliance guarantees airlines easy availability of skilled cabin crew, keeping in mind the acute shortage of trained human resource in this sector.
“We need more cabin crew as the airline is in heavy expansion mode in India. At present, the airline has 8,000 cabin crew and out of this, 800 are from India,” Emirates Airline’s vice-president of India & Nepal, Orhan Abbas, said. “As we are adding flights from Delhi, Mumbai and from south Indian cities, the airline needs local crew, at least one regional talent to speak that language while on board,” he said.
Experts say acute shortage of qualified aircrew continues to remain a matter of concern. A chronic shortage of pilots, engineers and airhostesses is grounding flights and stoking safety concerns around the world.
17/06/08 Mithun Roy/Economic Times