Jets - Growing Fast

Aircraft, as opposed to motor cars or other modes of transport, require highly trained personnel and a variety of specialised skills to operate and maintain

“India Inc. adds wings to its dreams, rushes to buy Biz Jets” was the headline of a news report published in the Economic Times of August 18, 2010. The report went on to say that companies and high net worth individuals in India had plans to purchase 157 aircraft over the next year. With these inductions, India would have the fourth largest fleet of business jets in the world. Currently, there are 111 aircraft in this category registered in India. In this respect, India is ahead of China, which has half the number of corporate jets though it has more billionaires. With this, business aviation has come of age in India and the aviation fraternity can take pride in being a part of one of the fastest growing sectors in the country.

To have name, fame and aim is admirable. But aircraft, as opposed to motor cars or other modes of transport, require highly trained personnel and a variety of specialised skills to operate and maintain. Is India prepared for that? Let us go into the detailed operations of a business jet. The fact that operations even by a single aircraft require a large number of hands is widely known and easily perceived during travel by commercial flights. In similar fashion, the operation of a business jet also requires a large number of hands albeit lower than that of an airliner. On a typical flight of a chartered business jet, on arrival at the terminal and prior to boarding, the passengers are served by a variety of people such as the security staff, baggage handlers, the chauffeurs and caterers who provide in-flight snacks. As these facilities are common with scheduled carriers, no special or additional arrangements are required for the chartered business jet.

Cabin Crew

Onboard any passenger-carrying aircraft there is a requirement for specialised staff. Cabin crew, to begin with, are part and parcel of the in-flight crew and perhaps as important as the pilots, if not more. They are responsible not only for the comfort of the passengers but also for their safety. Hence, they are required to be adequately trained for emergencies. Cabin attendants are not looked upon as being endowed with high level skills; rather they are admired for glamour and standards of hospitality. However, there have been numerous instances where cabin crew have been responsive and have played a critical role in ensuring the safety of passengers in times of emergency.

There is a major difference between the airline industry and business aviation in the types of aircraft operated. Scheduled airlines the world over are equipped predominantly with aircraft from either Boeing of Airbus, and to a lesser extent, by regional jets from Bombardier of Canada and Embraer of Brazil, the other two global aerospace majors. Availability of trained cabin crew for airliners is not a problem as there are several academies in the country churning out cabin crew trained to serve with various types of aircraft with the scheduled carriers. However, the only training curriculum formally approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the one conducted by the scheduled airlines themselves. Courses offered by the private academies in India are not as yet approved by the DGCA. But the problem in the business aviation segment is that there are a number of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of business jets producing a variety of aircraft of varying sizes and capacity. Besides, the same type of aircraft from a particular manufacturer may have a different configuration as it is modified to suit the customer’s requirements. The question then arises as to who will be responsible for the training and certification of cabin crew for the different types of business jets—the manufacturer, the buyer or training academies? Training of technical personnel is invariably a part of the package the OEM offers with the purchase of a business jet, but there is no such provision in respect of cabin crew.

Technical Personnel

Induction of a large number and a wide variety of business jets would push the demand for engineers and technicians with specific type training and qualifications. Apart from the requirement of trained manpower, agencies responsible for the maintenance of business jets, as also the MROs, will need sizeable investment in terms of infrastructure, tools, testers and other specialised equipment. Here again, the question of economies of scale will be of relevance. Will the number of each type of business jet being imported into India be large enough to justify the huge investments? Some of these aircraft may be the first entrants in the Indian skies leaving operators with no option but to source appropriately qualified engineers from abroad till the time Indian engineers trained on these aircraft types are readily available.