The recent major contract between Tata-owned Air India and aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus will directly and indirectly create over 200,000 employment in India.
Air India, which currently has a fleet of 140 planes, would purchase 470 planes from Boeing and Airbus under the terms of the agreement.
According to the experts, the merger would create a rush of jobs in the Indian aviation sector because the airline would need operational staff as well as employees for ancillary tasks.
According to Mark Martin, the CEO of Martin Consulting, a company with experience in the aviation industry, “the kind of jobs that will be produced include two components, direct employment and indirect employment.
A narrow-body aeroplane generates about 400 jobs in total, including both direct and indirect occupations. Moreover, a wide-body aircraft costs between 600 and 700.
The following is how Martin further delineated this figure: "Direct Employment will comprise those who are directly employed by the airline, such as pilots, cabin crew, and all technical and non-technical workers. For a narrow-body aircraft, this is about 175 miles. This number increases to 400 for a narrow body plane when indirect workers, or those outside the company, are included. Examples of these people include airport staff, air traffic controllers, transport vendors, service providers, and others.
“Direct employment in case of widebody is roughly 250 to 300 and after incorporating indirect employment, this number can go up to 600 to 700,” the aviation industry expert added.
By extrapolating from this data, he claimed that the number of jobs produced would be between 2,02,000 and 2,09,000 in total.
These opinions were shared by Jitender Bhargava, a former executive director of Air India.
He declared, "Air India would require qualified pilots, members of the cabin crew, maintenance engineers, ground staff, etc. But perhaps most significantly, this agreement would allow planes to reach areas that are currently not connected by airways. Both the infrastructure and tourism in that area would benefit from this.
It’s also important to note that Nipun Aggarwal, the chief commercial and transformation officer at Air India, announced in a since-deleted LinkedIn post that the airline had a deal with the aircraft makers for 840 planes, of which 470 had been ordered and 370 were options.
Aggarwal’s deleted tweet stated, “The order consists of 470 firm aircraft, 370 options, and purchase rights to be obtained from Airbus and Boeing over the next ten years.”
According to Bhargava, these “370 possibilities” allowed Air India to purchase 370 aircraft at the same price as 470 aircraft.
“The deal’s options indicate that the airline has frozen the cost. This implies that it may purchase 370 aircraft for the same cost as 470, according to the aviation industry expert.
According to sources, the airline received a discount while purchasing the aircraft.
Not just in India but also in the US, jobs will be created. US President Joseph Biden hailed the cooperation as historic and predicted that it will generate millions of new jobs in the US shortly after Air India announced the agreement.
Both British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron praised the agreement since it will benefit the aviation industries in their respective nations.
Manish Tewari of the Congress Party asserted that the transaction would not generate any jobs in India.
Stay tuned…
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