Air India Employees Who Opted For Retirement Can Work Again; Air India Needs More Employees!

As per the sources, amid shortage of cabin crew and long waiting period for US visas, Air India has given an option to the cabin crew who have opted for voluntary retirement scheme to extend their tenure until January 31 next year.

In June this year, the Tata group-owned airline, which is being revived with expanding fleet and routes, offered Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to its employees, including the cabin crew.

The relieving date for those who opted for the VRS was fixed as November 30. As many as 4,500 employees had applied for the scheme.

In a communication, the airline said that “The release date from the services of the company for VRS crew has been extended. Crew members may choose to extend their release date till January 31, 2023”.

As per the communication, the VRS scheme remains unchanged and the VRS benefit will be applicable to employees who are extending their release date.

Three release dates for the VRS crew – November 30, December 1 and January 31, 2023 – have been given by the Airline. Time till November 22 has been given to the people concerned.

As per the same, the actual date of release will be at the discretion of the management.

Why the Extension in Tenure?

As per the sources, due to the VRS scheme, the company is facing an acute shortage of cabin crew. It said that “The airline requires some 500 cabin crew amid its plans to expand the wide-body aircraft fleet and launch new long and ultra-long haul flights”.

The sources privy to the development also said that since there is a long waiting period for the US visas, extending the service tenure of these cabin crew who have opted for VRS is the only option to ensure that there are enough crew available for various flights.

Increased flights

MD & CEO, Air India, Campbell Wilson said the airline has expanded both domestically and internationally, including more flights to Vancouver, Sydney and Melbourne.

He said that “We now operate non-stop to London from seven Indian cities. From Mumbai we’ll be adding new non-stop service to San Francisco, New York and Newark starting in a few weeks. And this is just the start; as we restore and acquire more aircraft, there will be much, much more to come”.

Due to lack of parts and lack of money, Air India has restored nearly 20 aircraft that were grounded for years. He added that in addition to restoring long-grounded aircraft, the airline has finalised leases for 30 additional aircraft being delivered over the next 12 months – starting next week – with more in the final stages of negotiation.