Good times ahead for pilots; salaries reach for the skies

With the domestic aviation sector in full swing and talented manpower in short supply, the scuffle over poaching personnel between private airlines is getting quite fierce. Indian skies are already on the brink of getting crowded with another five budget airlines such as Spice Air (formerly Royal Airlines), Go Air, Indigo, Indus one and Air One scheduled to give company to the existing ones. As the need to hunt for readymade talent intensifies, with every new airline spreading its wings it's clear that the battle for the skies will be not just about cheaper airfares but will be dominated by bigger bonuses.

Poaching of human resource has far outstripped the fare wars with airlines entangled in court battles with each other. With so many air carriers on the scene and scarcity of trained human resources to meet the boom in civil aviation, poaching is posing a big challenge even...though; the Indian Civil Aviation Minister recently convened a meeting of all airlines to work out anti-poaching measures for the industry.

As India's aviation sector explodes, pilots, flight engineers, technicians and ground staff are reaping the benefits as they are inundated with offers (salaries in some cases have even shot up by 25 to 30 per cent). While the airline staff is overwhelmed with offers, the airlines are surely facing the heat. Hence, rather than competing for market share, unfortunately for the airlines, they have to resort to legal action in order to protect their human resources.

Responding to the poaching issue, Civil Aviation Minister Patel says the Government wouldn't like to regulate career options in a free market economy. But airlines should explore ways of observing self-discipline so that passengers are not put to inconvenience.

The feasible option is to tighten the work contracts and adhere to strict anti-poaching understandings, as the problem might increase in future as the number of jets flying in the country is set to leapfrog to over 500 in the next five years. Though the Government recently raised the retirement age limit of pilots by a year, it must be remembered that employing retention tactics are better than protection fights.

Good times: will it be with 'Kingfisher Airlines'?
On May 9, when liquor baron Vijay Mallya's dream baby Kingfisher Airlines finally took wings with its first commercial flight between Mumbai and Bangalore, a new era in domestic air travel started. Perhaps, nothing will remain the same.

The $1.8 billion dollar project of the UB Group has embarked on a marketing strategy, which blatantly aims at attracting a new generation of 'high-fliers' by offering and pampering them with top-quality entertainment and that too at budget prices.

The operations
The airline has begun operations with a double daily service in both directions and effective May 20, will increase to a ‘thrice daily’ in both directions. And in keeping with the trend of multiple price options, with an unrestricted fare rule, aimed at different traffic segments on all carriers, Kingfisher Airlines has decided to operate under three fare levels on all flights. Mumbai-Bangalore has a price structure of Rs 5,900, Rs 4,900 and Rs 3,900 whereas; the Delhi-Bangalore route, which is expected to start soon is a little higher priced with the three levels comprising Rs 10,900, Rs 8,900 and Rs 6,900.

Mallya quips, "In an attempt to run in a perfectly synchronised manner and with all the systems streamlined when we are ready to operate at full capacity, we are offering limited seats in the initial phase."

The airline plans to have a fleet of 33 Airbus aircraft including 10 A320s and three A319s, and the brand new, all Airbus fleet will comprise both the Airbus that seats 174 and 144 passengers —who are called 'guests'.

To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated May 16-22, 2005