After robust results, Indigo goes one better on jobs

New Delhi: The country’s largest airline by passengers carried, the low-cost carrier Indigo is not only the most profitable but also the leading creator of jobs in the sector. InterGlobe Enterprises, the company that runs the airline, posted a sixfold jump in its net profit to R787 crore in 2012-13 fiscal, added the maximum number of employees in the sector during the fiscal, at 1,949. This was nearly four times more than the next highest jobs addition in the sector, the 568 employees hired by low-cost rival SpiceJet.

During the same period, full-service airline Jet Airways cut about 767 jobs while the now-grounded Kingfisher Airlines’ workforce went down by 2,845 employees.
IndiGo’s new hiring in the previous fiscal was primarily driven by its fleet and network expansion.

During the fiscal, it added 11 aircraft and its capacity increased by 38%. Despite the addition of jobs, the low-cost carrier still has one of the lowest aircraft-to-personnel ratio in the industry. IndiGo has around 104 employees per plane while Jet Airways has 127 employees per aircraft.

However, SpiceJet has the lowest number of employees per aircraft, at 95. A senior Air India official said that the national carrier has nearly 186 employees per aircraft.
With the addition of nearly 10 more aircraft this fiscal, IndiGo is likely to keep up the pace of hiring this financial year as well.