In a quiet but significant shift within India's economic landscape, a new class of workers is taking to the skies. Love Kush, a 19-year-old construction worker from Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, recently boarded a flight from Delhi to Bengaluru, fiddling with his smartphone. This was only his second time travelling by air, a far cry from the train and road journeys he was accustomed to.
The New Face of India's Skilled Workforce
Kush's journey is not an isolated incident but a reflection of a deeper transformation. The demand for specialised blue-collar skills in India has grown so acute that companies are now routinely flying workers across the country. This practice is actively eroding traditional class boundaries, placing skilled tradespeople alongside office professionals in aircraft cabins.
The son of a farmer, Kush dropped out after Class 8. He has been working with AKG Shuttering for a year, earning a monthly wage of ₹15,000 (approximately USD 178). His expertise lies in shuttering—a critical skill for concrete construction—which has made him valuable enough for his employer to cover his flight tickets and accommodation, deploying him to project sites nationwide.
First-Time Flyers and In-Flight Experiences
On this particular flight to Bengaluru in January, Kush was accompanied by nine colleagues, all of whom were first-time flyers heading to a project for a three to three-and-a-half-month stint. A PTI journalist was seated next to the group, observing their mix of confidence and unfamiliarity with air travel protocols.
"Earlier, we used to travel by train. This is my first flight journey. It's a great feeling to travel by flight," said Ashok Deep Sharma, another farmer's son from West Bengal's Dakshin Dinajpur district.
Their inexperience surfaced in small, telling moments. When a flight attendant offered refreshments, one worker spoke too softly to be heard, prompting her to request he speak louder. Another worker declined the complimentary meal, apparently under the impression he would have to pay, until the attendant gently explained in Hindi that it was free.
Gen-Z Workers in a Changing Economy
Yet, in many other ways, these young workers mirrored their fellow passengers. They carried smartphones loaded with downloaded content—one watched the Bhojpuri movie "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki" during the flight. As the plane began its descent, colleagues queued to hand their phones to Kush, who had the window seat, asking him to capture videos of the clouds and aerial views of the city below.
Having struggled with boarding procedures on his first flight to Hyderabad in January 2025, Kush had now become the group's guide. "This time, I did not face any problem. I helped my colleagues who are first-time flight travellers," he stated.
The trend underscores broader changes in Asia's third-largest economy. Rapid urbanisation and massive infrastructure spending have created severe shortages of skilled labour. Industry executives confirm that the willingness to fly workers is a direct result of this shortage, coupled with an economic calculation: the cost of lost work time from slower train travel often exceeds the price of an air ticket.
After disembarking in Bengaluru, the workers paused to photograph themselves in front of the aircraft—a small but powerful symbol of their new reality. In India's evolving economic story, specialised skills are increasingly commanding the mobility and perks once reserved solely for white-collar professionals, marking a quiet yet profound shift in the nation's social and professional fabric.
