Kingfisher Airlines halts pilot hiring

Hyderabad: Kingfisher Airlines has put an end to its pilot recruitments for now, and has opted not to honour the 'letters of intent' it had issued to its co-pilots earlier this year.

Reports quoted unnamed sources while saying that the airline had issued letters of intent to young pilots promising them jobs as co-pilots once they completed their Type Rating training from institutes abroad. They reports say that a number of these trainee pilots have since then completed their training programmes successfully and have even received their Indian licences, but have not heard from Kingfisher Airlines.

Reports quoted sources as saying that the trainee pilots had been informed that Kingfisher Airlines does not need crew and that the communication was given to the students as and when they completed course and thereafter contacted the airline for the job promised to them earlier.

These young pilots now face a brutal financial loss at the very start of their careers, since the training programme costs lakhs of rupees, which most of them had hoped to earn back while flying for Kingfisher Airlines, as per the promise. 

Reports quoted one young pilot who had been issued this letter in April as saying that the letter was clear about the fact that he had to bear the course fee at the institute recognized by the airline. He says that since the job at Kingfisher was promised in the letter of intent, he paid around Rs35 lakh for the training programme, but was in for a rude shock when he returned and contacted the airline. The airline asked him to wait for them to contact him, which he says as not happened so far. 

Reports cited an unnamed Kingfisher spokesperson  as being unable to comment on the matter, and instead repeating the airline's statement prior to the weekend which spoke of salary cuts and the turbulence in the aviation industry that have mandated a reduction in capacity.

The letters of intent issues by Kingfisher Airlines say that it would absorb graduates of the training programme once the foreign flight licence is converted into an Indian one, and the trainee pilot is found to be 'skilled enough'. Trainee pilots now say that the phrase ''skilled enough'' could be leveraged against them, as it is subjective and open to interpretation.