Developing Competencies

Recent decades have witnessed the ascendancy of the Indian economy resulting in a rise in the speed of doing business. The corporate world has realised the significance of saving time through customised itineraries offered by Business Aviation. Business Aviation is the employment of airborne assets which are neither on military duty nor being used as scheduled flights. They include jets, turbo props and even piston-engine aircraft. A number of Business Aviation aircraft manufacturers have showcased their inventories at the air shows in Bengaluru and Hyderabad due to which many enterprising Indians are investing in Business Aviation to manage their time efficiently and improve productivity.

BUSINESS AVIATION IS UNIQUE

Business Aviation is different from scheduled flights. A Business Aviation aircraft can be flown between any destinations, at anytime as per the needs of the customer. The huge variety of business aircraft can tailor to the unique business needs of the corporate world in terms of the staff and machinery that needs airlifting. This variety in the Indian Business Aviation assets also creates unique ground support and avionics compatibility issues for flying vis-á-vis a scheduled airliner. The latter mostly comprises versions of Airbus or Boeing whereas the former has more aircraft manufacturers. Consequently, there are multiple challenges of human skilling needed to handle the diverse equipment employed to sustain flight operations.

The onboard avionics have to be compatible with the ground infrastructure at airports for smooth operations during take-off, mid-flight and landing support. The Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) are unique for each category of aircraft. Thus, complete aviation-related manpower has to be trained separately for each equipment or procedural variance akin to ‘type rating’ to, ensure proficiency and safety. During check-in, boarding, de-boarding and check-out, the streams of passengers flowing to and from the business aircraft are much less because of limited haul capacity. As a result, the ground handling infrastructure and staff are subjected to different workloads/stress and training requirements vis-á-vis a scheduled airline. So, all these aspects highlight the need for engaging staff trained for handling the unique machines, the work environment and passenger handling. Consequently, there is a continuous need for basic, refresher and unique ‘rating’/training for each type of equipment and work role.

SKILLS TRAINING FOR BUSINESS AVIATION

The success of the aviation sector hinges on competence in technical expertise and soft skills and this applies to Business Aviation as well. Everything depends upon the quality of the manpower employed. Consequently, there is a need to improve professional competence as well as social and soft skills of aviation employees. The need to learn to handle stress in the face of irate customers and enhanced workloads is obvious. Aviation, being a service industry, courtesy is of paramount importance. In fact, it is as important as the technical skills.

A thoroughly competent and professional staff will reduce losses and minimise MRO expenditure. This is only possible once the job deliverables, skill set expectations, existing standards for each work profile are identified, then defined and human skills gaps, articulated. A concerted and formal skilling programme then has to be executed at a central level to achieve uniformity of skill standards and work procedures pan India. This is precisely what the Government’s skill development programme does through its flagship Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council. The National Skills Qualification Framework has articulated the qualifications, level of knowledge, skills and aptitudes needed for each aviation-related job. It then devises pedagogy for imparting the same through theory, practical and apprenticeship training. It also articulates the skill outcomes expected from the trainee on culmination of the training.

There is a need to improve professional competence as well as social and soft skills of aviation employees

The Council then seeks bids from training establishments for conducting this training. After due diligence, the appropriate training establishments that undertake to provide maximum possible results at minimum cost, are empanelled. In order to ensure that these organisations provide quality service, adequate performance audits are done by the Council. In case any training organisation is found lacking in its professional deliverables, suitable action is initiated against it. This audit also enables the Council to actually compare the performance of all the training establishments engaged for aviation sector skilling. Consequently, the Council will be able to find out what needs to be added, deleted or modified in each course to provide the maximum impactful training to the trainees, to enable them to provide flawless service in the Business Aviation job industry.

SKILLS/JOBS IN BUSINESS AVIATION

The various job profile skill-sets needed in the aviation sector can be categorised as air-side, city-side, commercial space skills inside the airport building and the skills needed inside the airport to run the airport infrastructure and facilitate flying. The city-side is the first point of contact for a customer with the aviation industry. It starts with the ticketing staff. The next interaction is with the security personnel at the airport entrance, baggage check-in, customs, controllers of baggage movement between check-in desks, loading it in the right aircraft and the final delivery to the customer at the destination. The attitude and the professionalism of these staff members induce the customers for repeat sales, thus reducing the cost of acquisition of a new customer.

Jobs in the commercial space inside the terminal building include the physical processing and segregation of passengers in terms of documentation, luggage check and acceptance. On the airside of the airport, i.e. the area between the terminal building and the runway, multiple categories of people support aviation. They include high lift handlers, pushback technicians, cargo handlers, load controllers, ground support equipment handlers, providers of air conditioning power plants, aeronautical technicians and fuel managers. Staff is required on the tarmac to receive, prepare and ensure the timely take-off by aircraft in order to maximise revenue and reduce costs.

Certain infrastructure on the airfield needs to be run for 24 hours to enable Business Aviation and charter aircraft to fly. The airport employs skilled people such as fuel, oil and lubricant managers on the airport premises. Runway operators/technical managers ensure that the infrastructure of the airport is functional. Others include fire safety staff, airport cargo operations managers, warehouse managers and other specialists. They ensure that the airports are operational at all times. They also include software managers, flight information dissemination system managers, aeroplane and avionics technicians, metrological personnel and the Air Traffic Controllers. It can be seen that most of these employees in some way or the other, facilitate both Business Aviation and scheduled flight operations.

Each category of these specialists requires special training, motivation and integration within teams comprising inter-departmental personnel. This is only possible if the people are competent in their own trades and have a positive attitude towards work. All these facets will ensure the smooth functioning of Business Aviation, scheduled flights and generate revenue for the airport.

UNEXPLORED SKILLS FOR BUSINESS AVIATION

Since Business Aviation earns revenue by direct selling there is a need to have a dedicated unit for business development which should have experienced management professionals from diverse fields. These will be used to spread the word about Business Aviation in their former trade circles. These sales personnel could either be employees of a separate organisation that works as an aggregator of an idle Business Aviation’s lift capability or be employed directly on the rolls of Business Aviation companies. Adventure activities and airborne filming hold great potential for Business Aviation which is under exploited in India.

The first thing which is done to refresh and up-skill the aviation workers is to find out the exact nature, scope and the deliverables of the job for each category of personal posted at the airport. Then pedagogy is prepared to impart the required skills to individual trainees. This includes theory and practical classes to be followed by apprenticeship, on the ground training and an evaluation. It is a given that, in order to fly and function effectively and profitably, Business Aviation needs such human resources with superior skills.