Shortage of pilots, ground staff plague national airline

New Delhi: Even as Air India and Indian have, in the past few days, been victims of fog, bird-hits and technical snags, a shortage of pilots and ground staff have worsened the situation for the newly merged airlines.
According to Aviation Industry Employees Guild, Air India is also reeling under a severe staff shortage. “When we had 19 aircraft, our ground staff was 12,000. Now that we have 46 aircraft, four of them leased, we have 9,100 ground staff,” said V J Deka, chairman of the guild.
In Delhi, he said, they have a total of 1,600 people, of which 320 are commercial staff. “In one shift, we have about 45 people working. Out of this, 8 have been moved from each shift for Haj duties. We had more people working when there was less than half the number of aircraft. Obviously that will affect the quality of work,” said Deka.
Air India is also handling ground duties for 10 other airlines in Delhi and about 20 in Mumbai. “No recruitment has been done for the past few years and the staff shortage is mostly due to retirements in the past many years.
However, we have been outsourcing work to companies, paying them lesser and taking as much work out of them. Why would they have any loyalty towards the company,” he added.
27/11/07 Times of India