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India’s largest airline IndiGo has increased pilot salaries by a further 8 per cent as it sees a recovery in traffic. It has also reinstated overtime allowance for pilots to the pre-Covid level.
Further, to increase aircraft utilisation, the company is reinstating a work pattern for pilots under which pilots will earn more, but there will be fewer leaves.
For July, the airline has budgeted for an average of 1,550 flights daily, and it utilises its aircraft for around 13 hours.
Indigo introduced a 28 per cent pay cut for pilots in 2020. It was partially reversed in April when the airline announced an upward revision of 8 per cent in salaries. Thursday’s announcement takes the total salary reinstatement for pilots to 16 per cent.
The airline has also reinstated layover and deadhead allowances for pilots from July 31.
Pilots’ salary has become a thorny issue for India’s largest airline as pilots are unhappy with their pre-Covid salary not being fully restored.
Despite a partial restoration of salary hike, pilots remain disgruntled as IndiGo is currently operating more than 1,600 flights per day which is higher than what it operated before Covid-19 grounded travel.
On July 2, more than half of the flights operated by IndiGo faced delays as a large number of cabin crew members reported sick. According to reports, the crew members went for job interviews elsewhere, hampering the airline’s operations.
As the demand for air travel increases, allowing airlines to deploy more of their fleet, pilots seek reversal of pay cuts. Despite the partial restoration of salaries, pilots across airlines remain disgruntled, creating challenges for managers.
Tata group, the new owner of Air India, has restored employee salaries by almost 75 per cent compared to the pre-Covid level. Another Tata group airline, Vistara, reinstated its pilots’ salaries and flying allowance to pre-pandemic levels.
According to internal communication, SpiceJet has also hiked the salary of its captains and first officers by 10 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively. The salary hike for trainers at SpiceJet stands at 20 per cent.
“Airlines are back to operating capacity of pre-Covid level, our duty hours have significantly increased and in some cases more hectic than what they were before Covid. So why not restore full salary,” a senior commander said, pointing out that airlines have restored full salaries of employees of other departments.
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