Her hopes almost ran into an air-pocket

MUMBAI: Afreen Shaikh isn't one of those teenage girls who's always dreamt of being an airhostess. She quit her education after Std XII and opted for the airline industry because she and her family needed the money.

But at 18, and barely a few months into her first job, she found herself among the first batch of employees to be sacked by Jet Airways. Shaikh is the sole breadwinner of a family of five and also has a loan of Rs 2.5 lakh to repay.

Shaikh enrolled in the Frankfinn Institute of Airhostess Training after her HSC. The fees were over Rs 1 lakh, for which she took a loan. "When I got the job with Jet, I took another loan for the Rs 55,000 deposit that the airline asked for,'' she added. There were additional expenses like cosmetics. With a monthly salary of Rs 10,000, she hasn't even begun repaying her loan.

"I would have liked to pursue my MBA. But I thought it would be really expensive and I didn't have the money. But now I know that training to be an airhostess can be as costly,'' she said.

Shaikh also knows that the future is bleak. "Airlines across the world are losing money,'' she said. "I don't think any other airline will be willing to take us now.''

Courtesy: The Times of India