Aviation may be down, but training institutes still fly high

Mumbai: An instance is Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Academy. His aviation business is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, but students from the aviation academy are in demand. “Our academy is doing much better than our aviation business. World over, bulk carriers like Emirates, Qatar, Etihad are all growing and recruiting. Besides, many cabin crew members have resigned from India, as international players offer a better salary. Once we train students, it is not mandatory for them to join Kingfisher. So, there is continuous demand for air hostesses,” said a senior official from the Kingfisher Airhostess Academy.

Industry sources say the Kingfisher Academy has shut shop at various centres but the latter denied this.
For some others, things have not been that rosy. The Air Hostess Academy, for instance, shut shop in 2009-10 and has had several complaints filed against it for failing to refund student fees. Flying Cats, another institute, recently shut down; a ‘Fashionista School of Fashion Technology’ is now available on the earlier contact number of Flying Cats.
In-house Training is another flying school whose present whereabouts are not known. Though their website still exists, the contact numbers on it could not be reached. A few numbers dialled by Business Standard at some centres said the institute had shut down.
30/03/12 Kalpana Pathak & M Saraswathy/Business Standard