The Winged Dreams

Little did former air hostess Kakoly Kamath Chaliha conjure that she would get back her job, albeit in a different cast. And that too in her hometown Guwahati. She is now a faculty at an air hostess training institute in the city where she teaches soft skills, professional grooming as well as inflight cabin crew training.
She takes delight in cultivating youngsters to do what she used to do before she had quit her job as an air hostess to get married and settle down in Guwahati. When she had joined Air India in 1988, there was of course no such training institutes.
Nothing is more satisfying for her than flying with her ex-students as a passenger. Chaliha has seen her students metamorphose into poised, elegant and genteel aviation professionals. Enthusiastic youngsters from remote parts of the region now ‘dream of flying high’ and are ready to shell out Rs 1-1.5 lakh for a year-long training.
Guwahati is host to over a dozen such institutes which is a huge number by the city’s standards. But they cater to all the seven northeastern states. Jettwings Air hostess training institute have set up a branch in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. Frankfinn started five years back in Guwahati but its only in the past 1- 2 years that there has been a mushroom growth of so many institutes. And they have all propped up in the past 4-5years with fancy names like Griffins, Flying Cats, Avalon, Sky Academy, Horizon, Jobra Academy, Jettwings, AHA, Frankfinn and Kingfisher. Some of them are franchises of parent companies and some are local brands.
This trend is in tune with the growth in the private airlines and the need for trained manpower all over the country. Connectivity in the region has augmented with the setting up of airports in almost all the state capitals of the region. Suddenly it seems like a golden opportunity for many students who always wanted to get into such professions but did not know how to get there.
The recession did have an impact on the student intake. Initially these institutes started off with an average of 30 per batch. But now the number has come down and on an average a batch now starts with 18-20 students. Banks too are reluctant to sanction loans to pursue these courses after reading about lay-offs and freeze in appointments by airline companies. The fee structure varies from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1.4 lakh excluding other miscellaneous expenses like fooding and lodging. Many institutes also try to lure students by giving fee discounts.
With a heady cocktail of glamour, money and a job guarantee, most of the institutes invite a Bollywood celebrity to initiate the institute. Recently former Miss World Diana Hayden was in the city to inaugurate one such institute which even promises ‘50 percent of the fees back if the student does not get a job’.
The aggressive marketing teams from the different institutes try to take admissions to the doorsteps of the students. They lure students by holding free seminars in the different colleges with impressive audio-visual presentations on the future and illuminating prospects of the aviation industry. The eligibility is class 12 and there is no cut-off percentage.
In times of recession, jobs in the aviation industry are hard to come by. Hence, the courses in these institutes are designed in such a way that it has the three elements of aviation, hospitality and customer service management. Though the students come with the dream of becoming an air hostess or a flight steward, they are gradually made to realize that they can always glide over to the other sectors like hotel and tourism. They are taught about the huge scale of operations in hotels and cruise liners which require the same kind of skills.
However, many feel that most of these institutes are not delivering what they are promising though the price of the courses vary from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1.4 lakh per annum.
A survey on 10 such air hostess training institutes were conducted by the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Technology under the Union Ministry of Tourism. The survey found that with the sprout in such institutes, the supply is more than the demand. As a result, absorption is in low-paid jobs.
Every new trend has its pros and cons. Its true that the sprout in air hostess training institutes in Guwahati have opened up new vistas to the youth of the region.
11/07/09 Teresa Rehman/Tehelka