Air travel demand on the rebound, but pilots are a disgruntled lot

While passenger demand for air travel is on the rebound again, allowing at least a few airlines to clock profits, pilots in the country are a disgruntled lot as they continue to reel under steep pay cuts despite hectic work hours.

A pilot at a budget airline says her pay cut has taken her salary back by 10 years when she earned a mere ₹60,000 per month as a new recruit and a junior pilot (or first officer) while she spent ₹1 crore for her pilot training.

Though on paper the airline had imposed a pay cut of 28%, flying allowances, that comprise a substantial chunk of a pilot’s salary, have been shaved off by 50%.

“Pilot morale across the industry is really bad,” a pilot said. “ While I have been trying to transfer my home loan to a different bank so that I can get a lower rate of interest, some of my colleagues have had to either sell their homes or cars or pull out their children from their schools,” a pilot said.

There are families where both husband and wife are pilots, resulting in the household income getting cut by by half.

What is affecting the pilots the most is that cuts continue despite revival in passenger demand, which in March was between 75% to 95% of the pre-pandemic levels. Planes are also fuller than before, seeing more than 80% seats being sold in February. Recently, IndiGo and SpiceJet reported profits after a gap of seven quarters with the former clocking a profit of ₹130 crore and the latter ₹42.5 crore.

“We kept quite when pay cuts were introduced in the beginning of the pandemic as there was very little flying happening because of various restrictions. But now we are frustrated because the work has significantly gone up and the flights are also full of passengers,” said another pilot.

The pilot added that the overall duty hours for pilots have gone up and who on some days they fly up to 12 hours, which is the maximum permitted under the DGCA’s rules. COVID-19 protocols also mean that pilots spend longer at airports than the pre-pandemic period, but this is not counted in duty hours.

On Thursday, IndiGo reduced 28% pay cuts for pilots to 20% and 38% for examiners to 30%. The airline also said that another 6.5% revision will be carried out from November 1. But the move has only met with disappointment.

“Obviously, no one is happy with such steep pay cuts continuing for two years. There is no logic in continuing with it anymore,” said a pilot of another budget carrier. “Earlier, since we were not flying, we were not getting paid. Now, workload has increased and it is about time that the airlines restore salaries. A lot of international airlines around the world have started hiring again, and if the airlines continue to behave like this there is no reason for pilots to continue to stick around and Indian carriers will lose their trained pilots,”

Pilots at Air India reiterate a longstanding issue. They say a 40% cut in allowances hits pilots and cabin crew disproportionately as those with flying duties have a higher proportion of their salaries as allowances.

“Tatas have not done anything to address this disparity. Employees have raised this issue and we have been told that the management will review the decision when the airline is in better financial health,” said one pilot.

“We continued to perform our duties despite the fear of falling sick from COVID-19 and carrying the infection home from airports, but all we got were pay cuts,” said another pilot.

“While the airline management may say that the ATF is at an all-time high and there is uncertainty over fourth wave, airlines need to find better ways to cope with fuel price volatility and devise ways to pass on the costs to the end consumer instead of making their employees take the brunt,” a pilot of a low-cost carrier said.