Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) National carrier Air India’s low-cost subsidiary Alliance Air Tuesday started a pilot recruitment campaign, intended to help the airline to tide over any future strike called by the present pilots unions, a senior official said.

“We have started this requirement campaign for our subsidiary airline Alliance Air. Through this we hope to have enough pilots with us to tide over any threat of strike coming from the pilots unions,” a senior official with the airline’s operations arm told IANS.

According to the official, the recruitment campaign is for a fixed term on consultant basis for pilots and co-pilots, thereby assuring the airline of a smooth operational future, as under the contractual obligations the pilots will not be allowed to go on any strike.

“To meet the existing and future requirements, AASL invites applications from eligible Indian nationals, who are type-rated as commander, co-pilots on fixed term basis,” said the Air India advertisement in some of the leading national dailies.

The pilot recruitment is for the domestic sector oriented Airbus A320 and A330 aircraft types, which have capacity to seat around 180 passengers.

Meanwhile, the official did not divulge the number of pilots slated to be recruited, but added that the number would be in double-digits.

Alliance Air played a crucial role with its 100-odd domestic flights during the 10-day long Air India pilot’s strike which started on April 26 and crippled the airlines domestic operations with cancellation of 1,600 flights.

Currently, the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) which operates the brands like Air India, Alliance Air and Air India Express has around 1,600 pilots on ts payroll. Around half of these pilots owing allegiance to erstwhile Indian Airlines went on the recent strike causing a revenue loss of Rs.150 crore to the flag carrier, which is already reeling with massive losses.