4,500 Air India employees opted for voluntary retirement so far: Report

Under the Air India's VRS rules, people older than 40 years of age with 20 years of continuous employment can opt for voluntary retirement

In a bid to infuse fresh talent in Air India, Tata Group introduced the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) on June 1. An Economic Times report stated that around 4,500 employees have opted for retirement under the scheme. Additionally, 4,000 more people will retire from the company in the next two years.

The report quoted the executives with knowledge of the matter, saying that the airline is working on improving productivity and revitalising 'archaic systems' with digital culture. Tata Group has also reportedly launched a major recruitment drive in metro cities to hire new talent.

Air India is also considering buying Airbus A350 jets and Boeing's narrow-body planes to renew its fleet.

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"It [Air India] has to become a modern airline and shed systems, processes and people from an era where the mindset has been set and cannot be changed. This is a digital era, and the airline has to be revamped in terms of systems and people to be consumer-focused," Mark Martin, CEO of Martin Consulting, was quoted as saying by ET.

Air India has been hiring people from Tata Group companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata Digital, to handle the call centres, website and customer experience. It is also working on improving the execution and customer service, the report added.

Tata Group executives also said that the airline needed people with the right attitude to compete with international rivals.

Under Air India's VRS rules, people older than 40 and 20 years of continuous employment can opt for voluntary retirement. The company also gave an ex-gratia amount of Rs 1 lakh to those who opted for the VRS between June 1 and July 31.

Tata Group acquired Air India in January 2022. At that time, the company had around 13,000 employees, and 8,000 were permanent staff. On July 1, Business Standard reported that 1,600 employees had opted for the VRS until then.