Saturday January 3, 01:28 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

Gulf-based carriers look to India for recruiting cabin crew

By Shaheen Mansuri
The tide is set to turn on the fortunes of cabin crew professionals in India, despite domestic carriers going ahead with retrenchment and downgrade programmes. This, since Gulf-based carriers are going on a hiring spree from training institutes based in the country. According to a recent IATA report, unlike their counterparts in other countries, Gulf-based carriers have recorded a growth of 5.6% in passenger traffic in October-November compared to the same period a year ago. Carriers like Gulf-based Saudi Arabian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways and Emirates have recruited cabin crew from Delhi-based Air Hostess Academy (AHA). HR heads of Emirates and Bahrain Air also visited campuses of training academy Frankfinn Institute for recruitments. Rakesh Agarwal, managing director, Frankfinn Institute of air hostess training, said, We will have one more campus recruitment drive on January 10, wherein many airlines from the Middle East will participate. Sapna Gupta, managing director, AHA, mentioned that at a recent round table organised by the company, major players from the aviation sector stressed on the fact that air travel will show a sturdy growth in the times to come. An industry observer, meanwhile, noted, Crude oil prices have fallen and airlines are hopeful of passenger traffic gradually picking up at least in the last quarter of the fiscal. He further added that despite the sector showing a lack-lustre performance since mid-2008, carriers like Etihad and Emirates carried 80% of the 40 million passengers who flew to the Middle East from India during 2008. Also, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways are engaged in a battle to win customers from the Indian market. Orhan Abbas, vice-president (India and Nepal), Emirates, told media persons recently, India is a huge market and it can absorb many players. Each carrier can have a big slice of the pie in the Indian market. He had further mentioned that the Indian market is growing and there is scope to exploit the expanding market. New highs and#149; Saudi Arabian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways and Emirates have recruited cabin crew from Delhi-based AHA and#149; HR heads of Emirates and Bahrain Air also visited campuses of Frankfinn Institute for recruitment and#149; Frankfinn will have another campus recruit-ment drive on January 10; many airlines from the Middle East will participate