Air India rehires retired cabin crew members to overcome shortage

Air India has rehired more than 75% of the cabin crew members who retired in the past 6 months or so apparently because a large number of employees at the airline are often unavailable for duty. The carrier has rehired about 81 cabin crew members among 238 employees in various departments, including 50 in engineering and 90 in ground handling subsidiaries, officials said. These employees have been rehired on contract for one year and will be paid the last drawn salary in most cases, they said. "We have enough cabin crew but the problem is of availability because a lot of them are on leave or would not fly," a senior official said. Cabin crew shortage is a recurring problem for Air India, which was earlier directed by the govt to hire more than 800 cabin crew members to overcome flight cancellations and delays. <br/>