Air India, a Tata Group company, is conducting walk-in interviews and a hiring campaign to find 4,200 cabin personnel and 900 pilots in response to the Go First crisis. Go First, India’s third-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy after being caught off guard by a surge in post-pandemic travel, compelling it to lay off nearly 7,000 employees.
Thursday, dozens of pilots, many from the financially troubled Go First, flocked to a Tata group hotel near Delhi for walk-in interviews with the group’s Air India airline. Tuesday’s announcement by Go First that it had filed for bankruptcy at a time when demand for aviation travel in the world’s most populous nation surged was shocking to many employees.
A pilot who joined Go First two years ago and was waiting in queue at Tata’s Taj Hotel remarked, “It’s very disheartening, the airline was operating as if everything were normal.” “We must abandon ship to maintain our pilot’s licences,” he added.
Although Air India, Vistara, and the country’s largest airline, IndiGo, have held similar hiring campaigns in the past, the number of applicants was higher than usual. They connected the numbers to the plight of Go First, formerly known as Go Airlines (India) Ltd, which employs approximately 7,000 people.
Air India announced on Twitter that the hiring campaign in Delhi and Mumbai will continue through Friday. The airline, which was repurchased from the government by the salt-to-software Tata group last year, plans to employ more than 4,200 cabin crew and 900 pilots this year as part of a major overhaul that also includes orders for a record-breaking 470 jets.
The CEO of Go First stated earlier this week that the airline is committed to its employees and is diligently working to restore normal operations. Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) instructed cash-strapped airline GoFirst to compensate consumers who had purchased tickets for Thursday flights that were cancelled or suspended.
“DGCA has reviewed Go First’s response and issued an order under the applicable regulations directing them to process passenger refunds within the timeframes specified in the relevant regulation,” the statement continued.