Reinstated Jet cabin crew now assist passengers at airports

Mumbai: Khan, 24, had joined Jet Airways India Ltd as a trainee cabin crew member last September, only to be laid off a month later as the airline retrenched 1,900 employees to counter the worst slowdown in the domestic aviation industry.
He was reinstated a day later as Jet retracted its decision, and Khan’s happy now assisting business class passengers to the lounge at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport while they wait for their flights. It’s a temporary assignment and he doesn’t mind so much that he’s not flying.
Khan did not want his first name taken in this report.
Typically, cabin crew members earn additional allowances for working on late shifts or flying outside the country.
Jet, which jostles with rival Kingfisher Airlines Ltd for the top spot among airlines in the country by passengers flown, last month started deputing some of its cabin crew on airport duty by turns for two weeks to a month, making use of its surplus cabin crew as it slammed the brakes on its international expansion and reduced domestic flights by at least 15%.
“There are excess cabin crew with our capacity rationalization and shortage of ground staff owing to the freeze in the recruitment process,” another Jet executive said on condition of anonymity. “In order to retain them and extend better customer services, we are deploying them at airports for assisting passengers, smoothening check-in process and taking feedback.”
A Jet spokeswoman only said the decision was aimed at enhancing the level of service at airports.
Kingfisher, which has also postponed expansion on its international routes and is reducing its domestic flights, is also contemplating a move similar to Jet’s staff redeployment, according to a senior company executive.
National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, or Nacil, which runs Air India, is also redeploying its staff but as part of integrating Air-India and Indian Airlines, which had merged in 2007 to form the larger company.
Other low fare carriers in India—including GoAir, SpiceJet and IndiGo—say they already maintain lean staffing.
Not all airlines have attempted such redeployment of staff. Leading European airlines, including Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, have issued termination notices to some cabin crew in India as they are reducing flights to India.
15/03/09 P. R. Sanjai/Livemint