Jet Airways will operate flights with female cabin crew members in its start-up phase and hire male cabin crew members once it reaches a certain operational scale, the airline said on Sunday.
It will be following the footsteps of Vistara, which had started hiring male cabin crew in March 2018, approximately three years after it was launched.
Jet Airways, which has not flown since April 17, 2019, is currently in the process of re-launching operations under its new promoters Jalan-Kalrock Consortium.
Aviation veteran Sanjiv Kapoor took charge as the Chief Executive Officer of the airline on April 4.
In a statement on Sunday, a Jet Airways spokesperson said, "We have a limited number of NCR-based cabin crew, trained and qualified on the Boeing 737 aircraft, on our rolls to operate our proving flights that should take place soon. Several of them have worked with Jet Airways in the past."
The airline will receive its air operator certificate (AOC) after it conducts it proving flights successfully.
"While we only have women in our cabin crew in the current start-up phase, as an equal opportunity employer, we will be having men as cabin crew as well once we reach a certain operational scale," the spokesperson mentioned.
Jet Airways has always had a gender-neutral hiring policy, and that will continue, the spokesperson said.
"The airline earlier proudly operated with a mixed cabin crew, and we will resume that and hire male crew once we get to a certain scale. It should be noted that it will be one of very few airlines in India that hire male crew, as we believe that it is the right thing to do," the spokesperson mentioned.
"The initial women-only crew is only to simplify and optimize rostering and training and layover (overnight stay) costs and crew ratios while we are still subscale and our crew requirements are limited, and is also reflective of the cabin crew applicant pool which is predominantly female," the spokesperson added.
IndiGo, India's largest airline, operates with only female cabin crew members.
Full service carriers Vistara and Air India hire male cabin crew members.
SpiceJet, Go First and AirAsia India also have male cabin crew members in their staff.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU