Laid-off staff 'DIAL' IndiGo, Paramount

With airline employees facing the heat, developers of the Delhi and Mumbai airports are witnessing a rush of applications from them for recruitment to various airport services.

Apart from the developers, airlines such as IndiGo and Paramount, which are on an expansion spree, are also recruiting the 1,000 people who have been laid off. "We have recently inducted 10 people in the middle management level who were earlier with Jetlite," said M Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount Airways.

Industry sources confirmed that while IndiGo has not recruited any ex-JetLite or Kingfisher employee yet, they have been getting several applications from them. Both Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) will need to recruit more staff by May 2009 since more than 2,000 posts are expected to be vacant as employees opt for retirement.

Jet Airways-owned low cost carrier Jetlite has recently given the pink slip to 750 employees in the airport services, marketing and sales among other departments. About 300 employees from the security department, flight operations and engineering and maintenance were laid off by full service carrier Kingfisher.

National carrier Air India has plans to implement a downsizing scheme, which involves sending employees for a three to five year leave without pay.

"There has been a surge in applications from ex-airline staff. And yes, we are recruiting people for our terminal handling and cargo services. For some of these services, we would definitely require people with some experience in the aviation industry," said a spokesperson of MIAL, the GVK-led consortium developing the Mumbai airport.

Interestingly, around 57 per cent of the jobs cut by Jetlite and Kingfisher are related to airport and security services. Last year, both DIAL and MIAL had offered to recruit all the AAI employees who were working at the airport into their company. Only around 140 out of 2,300 employees at Delhi AAI joined DIAL, whereas around 145 out of 2,500 Mumbai employees joined MIAL.

MIAL currently has 582 employees, while DIAL has 1200. Industry figures suggest that both airports together need 1,000 additional employees.