Air India Turns to Retired Engineers to Fight Staff Crunch

Faced with an acute shortage of engineering staff, national carrier Air India has re-hired around 150 retired aircraft maintenance engineers for a three-year period on contract basis.

While local airlines are expanding their fleet with the domestic air passenger traffic growing at over 20 percent for nearly two years, there is a significant shortage of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AME), industry insiders say.

Against this backdrop, Air India has started roping in retired AMEs and so far, around 150 of them have joined back, Air India officials said.

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I have a shortage of 150-200 engineers and I have employed my retired staff to fill up the gap... I have taken about 150 people on contract for three years.

HR Jagannath, Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) CEO

There has been no recruitment of AMEs in the last 10 to 12 years, he said, adding that currently the Air India group has around 750 such engineers, including the retired ones who have been hired on three-year contracts.

As a thumb rule, one aircraft requires around seven engineers.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, AIESL provides MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) services to aircraft.

Noting that 10-15 AMEs are retiring every month, Jagannath said Air India has also started a recruitment drive for these engineers.

Currently, regulations do not allow private individuals to apply for the AME recruitment examination and they have to be sponsored.

As part of efforts to deal with the situation, Jagannath said private candidates should be allowed to appear for an oral examination conducted by aviation regulator DGCA.

The DGCA has agreed to it (allowing private candidates to take orals). They (DGCA) are very proactive and by March, I expect the rules to be in place.

According to Jagannath, there is an urgent need for AMEs in the industry, especially since carriers are expanding their fleet and Air India itself plans to add 130 planes.

The Indian maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sector has significant growth potential and is expected to grow to $5.2 billion by 2036, as per leading consultancy KPMG.