Pilot unions urge Air India/civil aviation ministry to reverse salary cuts

The ICPA said that the ‘international layover allowance’ had been amended to government rates, which it found perplexing.

The two pilot unions of national carrier Air India have urged the Minister of Civil Aviation and the airline’s chairman and managing director to roll back the reductions in their salary and reinstate their monthly flying allowances in line with industry standards. Most other airlines in India have scaled back their austerity measures. The appeals were in the form of letters and addressed to the Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, and the Air India chairman and managing director, Rajiv Bansal. In its letter dated March 23, the central office of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), in Chennai — it has six offices — drew the Minister’s attention to the pilots having borne the “brunt of unjust pay cuts with unilateral reductions to wages of approximately 58% from April 2020, and 55% from October 2020”, at a time when Air India has been the only major Indian airline to operate the most number of repatriation flights through the peak of the novel coronavirus pandemic. An aviation industry expert familiar with the context in which the letters were written said that as a breakup, this would work out to a 40% cut on all allowances barring salary which is a small part of the gross package. Allowances form nearly 60% to 70% of the gross pay. Also, instead of the fixed 70 hours payment which is the industry norm, the pilots are being paid based on the actual flying done. In addition, there has been a cut of 40% on the hourly rate payment.