Air India volte face leaves would-be pilots in lurch
11 Aug 2010
An unexplained flip-flop by the National Aviation Company India Ltd, which controls national airline Air India, has left many aspiring pilots disappointed. NACIL had invited applications for 40 type-rated co-pilots' posts to fly the Boeing-737s, only to cancel the invitation after a few days.
The company has posted a terse letter on the Air India website saying the advertisement has been cancelled and hence no cognisance shall be taken of the applications received against it. No reason for the move has been specified.
There was no reply to an email sent to company's spokesperson by The Times of India for two days.
The advertisement is learnt to be part of a fresh recruitment process started by Air India's chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav, who recently took over from Raghu Menon. Jadhav had struck down the earlier recruitment process following charges of bias.
The main contention was that selected candidates happened to be related to senior officers of AI. A fresh advertisement was posted later.
NACIL also seems to be sitting on a Right to Information (RTI) query by an individual from Nagpur about the same process.