In the West, specialised recruiting agencies have long since been entrusted with finding business aviation personnel. It's a normal, civilised practice which is now starting to find its way into Russia too.

Maria Ryabova, general director of Main Capital consulting group, told "Aquatoria Of Luxury Life" about a new for the Russian market service: recruiting staff for business aviation.

- Recruiting staff for business aviation is still a rather novel service in the Russian market. Why did you choose this particular area?

- There's a quite high demand for personnel in civil and business aviation alike. The situation in civil aviation is especially dire: not enough pilots, not enough maintenance personnel, not enough flight attendants. In business aviation things are a bit better because the pay is much higher. But since it's a highly specialised field, aircraft owners face serious problems trying to find skilled professionals. And the demand for our services is growing quite quickly. There are increasingly more business aircraft around, creating demand for people with these skills.

- Human resources is probably issue number one for any company. Especially for a segment like business aviation. What kind of problems employers are likely to experience hiring staff?

- The problem is there are simply no staff specially trained for VIP aviation around. Each company or owner hires "raw" personnel and trains them "for themselves". Of course there are people with 20 years' experience in civil aviation, good English and nice personalities. In such cases employer usually decides in favour of the job seeker. But mostly it's headhunting. People who've worked in business aviation for, say, three years, very rarely have to look for a new job for longer than 2 or 3 months.

- Don't they raise their own personnel?

- It's very difficult. You have to invest a lot in training, and the investment doesn't always pay off. Some employers send their staff to undergo training abroad, pay all expenses but don't always get their money's worth.

- What qualities must candidates have, and how do you agree the requirements with aircraft owners?

- It all depends on the position the candidate is seeking. For example for flight attendants the main qualities are responsibility, diligence, willingness to work 24 hours a day. Often he or she might get a call an hour or two before the flight, and she must be ready. Always in good mood, no personal problems. And of course when we recruit, we discuss each individual position with the owner in detail. There might be all sorts of wishes. For example, the same flight attendant must be able to cook Japanese dishes or be familiar with particular restaurants and hotels the owner is going to frequent. More often than not flight attendants are everything in business aviation! And the pilots, if they are Russian-speaking, usually become friends of the owners and their families. Like personal drivers.

- And how do you make sure the candidate is right for the job?

- First of all we have a long personal interview, about 40-50 minutes. It's based on the owner's requirements: for example, there may be several options to test the candidate's English, depending on what’s needed: they may have to merely welcome the owner's partners and offer refreshments, but they may also have to be fluent. And of courses, references. That's concerning flight attendants. Pilots' skills are assessed primarily on the basis of their qualifications. We check all documents, all the way to pilot's licence. Trace all their training and retraining history, where did they have it, in the US or in Europe, what kind of licence they hold. Check what kind of aircraft they flew, where, who with. And again, references…

Then we check their personality, make a profile and present it to the owner. Say, the candidate is ambitious, outgoing. If that's what's needed, fine. If not, we find somebody quiet and balanced.

- Are there any training establishments in our country where recruiting agencies could go for personnel?

- Unfortunately, practically none. As to pilots, only Ulyanovsk and St. Petersburg universities train highly skilled professionals. And the graduates are being grabbed like hotdogs. But in any case such pilots are not suitable for business aviation. The right candidate must have sufficiently large number of flight hours to their credit. Usually owners require at least 4,000-5,000 hours for captains and 2,000-3,000 hours for co-pilots.

- Do foreigners get invited to work for Russian owners?

- Of course they do, because the aircraft often are not registered in the RF and are based in the West. Accordingly, all maintenance staff are hired locally. So foreign professionals quite often work onboard VIP aircraft owned by Russians. And they like working for "Russian masters" because our owners pay quite generously.

- Speaking about that, what kind of salaries are offered in this segment?

- Currently a captain starts at €8,000. A co-pilot gets 4,000-5,000 Euros. Engineers who are very much in demand, by the way, earn between 3,000 and 5,000. But of course it all depends on the aircraft and the actual job.

As to flight attendants, it depends on the owner. If it's a business aviation company, they start at 2,000-3,000. Note that it's the basic salary, plus bonuses, per diem… It all adds up to about 3,500. With private owners, flight attendants may get between 4,000-5,000 and 8,000-10,000 Euros, occasionally making just two or three flights a month.

- How would you estimate the prospects of this kind of services on the Russian market?

- As very good ones. The market is certainly going to grow. Business jets are coming to Russia. People pay to jump the queue to buy a jet, so obviously these are in demand. And recruiting services will be very much in demand too, in the next few years.

Dmitri Gnatenko

13.03.2009

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