Hyderabad: Did you know that the cabin crew industry has the highest rejection rate in the world. "Its close to 90%," says Mr. Rajesh Verma, Chief Mentor, Kingfisher Training Academy (KTA) and E-VP Kingfisher Airlines. "Here the problem is not of employment opportunities but of employability."

Says Kunal Vasudeva, Project Head, Kingfisher Training Academy, "the existing institutes don't have a user's understanding of the market. For Kingfisher however, our lineage itself has lent to backward integration into a training academy.

Why is Hyderabad the preferred location to set up Kingfisher Training Academy's first branch outside of Mumbai?

Says Mr. Verma, " Hyderabad Airport is emerging as one of the five business airports in the country. Kingfisher Airlines is setting up its own cabin crew base in Hyderabad in April to facilitate crew operations from Hyderabad. Clearly, the impetus to train and hire crew locally is going to be big."

CAREER PROSPECTS

Kingfisher Training Academy hopes to train at least 3000 candidates over the next three years from Hyderabad.

Adds Kunal, " The Hilton, InterContinental, Taj, Leela and Ritz Carlton are setting up shop in Hyderabad. They also need a continuous stream of manpower. Earning prospects for a graduate passing out of Kingfisher Training Academy would be at least 25000/month upwards for cabin crew and 12000 upwards in the Hotel industry."

Adds Kunal, "Our first batch that passed out of Bombay has been placed successfully in Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, Spice Jet, Go Air and Indian Airlines. In the non-aviation sector, KTA has placed its first batch in leading hotels like JW Marriot, Hyatt, Renaissance , and the Taj Group, Mumbai. KTA has also tied up with leading nationalized banks under priority sector lending norms with a 12 month gestation period. Simply put, the repayment period starts after a year."

HYDERABAD CONTACT DETAILS
KTA will have one branch in Hyderabad located at Gokul Towers, Punjagutta Main Road. This will be operational by end of March 2008.  We will have another branch in Secunderabad soon.

The admissions office will be at the Regus Centre, Mid Town Plaza, Banjara Hills. The office is now open to handle admission enquiries. Tel no; 65413800/64513860.

INDUSTRY INFORMATION
Collectively Indian carriers have placed firm orders for approx 100 W/B aircraft and 300 N/B aircraft worth billions of dollars in the next 06 years. To fund this huge growth, requirement of trained cabin crew, ground handlers and others will be in huge demand in the near future. With the aviation industry seeing a growth of 35 to 40 % in passenger traffic between April 2006 and March 2007, and projected to grow at an annual conservative rate of 23-27% in the next five years, the dearth of skilled manpower is a major concern.

Verma said, "the 300 aircrafts present currently in the country also have an acute shortage of manpower. Every narrow body aircraft needs 30 cabin crew and every wide body aircraft (340s and 330s) needs 100 crew per aircraft. A (380) would need even more than a 100 crew. Also considering that 60% of the crew for the middle eastern airlines are Indians, and these airlines are also growing, we have a huge requirement. Across our 11 centres which will be operational by February 2008, we can train only 10000   customer service personnel per year, whereas the requirement is projected in lacs. This is not to mention the additional manpower required in ground staff, retail, BPOs and the Hotel industry. "

GOING FORWARD
Mr. Michael Tan, the GM training of KTA with extensive international and national airline experience added that KTA was actively looking at a corporate training program and had already trained Vodafone and  Delhi International Airport Limited and Mumbai International Airport Limited and the soon to launch training for Reliance Hospitals and  HLL.

Summing up, Kunal  Vasudeva, Head Projects and Operations for KTA says, "Going forward, KTA aims to become a preferred centre for students aspiring to be service industry professionals, airlines to outsource their training requirements and also for corporates for their management training programs."

By 2010 KTA expects to have 25 centres nationally and may even consider setting up centres in SAARC countries and the Middle East.