Air India to add more than 4,200 cabin crew and 900 pilots by 2023 to support growth plans

Air India, owned by the Tata group, said on Friday it plans to hire more than 4,200 cabin crew trainees and 900 pilots by 2023 as the airline adds new aircraft and rapidly expands its domestic and international operations.

Earlier this month, Air India announced a mega order to purchase 470 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus to support its growth plans. It has already announced plans to lease 36 aircraft, with two B777-200LR already added to the fleet.

“The cabin crew, who will be recruited from across the country, will undergo a 15-week program teaching safety and service skills, and will be coached to exemplify the best of Indian hospitality and Tata group culture. The training program includes extensive classroom and in-flight training at the airline’s training facility in Mumbai, as well as familiarization flights,” Air India said in a statement.

It added that Air India hired more than 1,900 cabin crew between May 2022 and February 2023. More than 1,100 cabin crew have been trained in the past seven months (between July 2022 and January 2023), and about 500 cabin crew have been released to fly by the airline in the past three months.

Sandeep Verma, head of (inflight services) at Air India, said: “With a sizeable aircraft order announced earlier this month, more flights on international and domestic networks and the realignment of domestic routes with AIX connect, cabin crew will play a decisive role play in shaping the present and future of the Air India group.”

He added that the addition of new talent will also accelerate the pace of cultural transformation at Air India, which is an integral part of our Vihaan.AI transformation program. “We also want to hire more pilots and maintenance engineers.”

“Applicants interested in careers as cabin crew or pilots with Air India can apply to [email protected] and [email protected] respectively,” Air India said in the statement.

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