Refer a pilot and get ₹20 L — IndiGo’s offer for employees
NEW DELHI: In a first, IndiGo is offering employees a reward of ₹20 lakh for referring senior pilots to the airline. According to sources, the latest “referral reward” amount is a tenfold rise from what the domestic carrier airline was offering earlier.
Employees will be rewarded ₹20 lakh each for referring “typerated examiners, instructors and training captains,” the airline said in an internal mail to employees. Type-rating is a specialised training to fly a particular type of aircraft, and examiners and instructors are the senior-most pilots.
For referring type-rated senior captains and captains, the airline is giving a reward of ₹15 lakh, and for type-rated senior first officers (co-pilots), ₹10 lakh.
“The increased referral bonus pay-out will be effected only when the referred candidate is selected. Referral reward will be paid in two equal installments, and each installment shall be processed along with the next month’s salary,” according to IndiGo’s email, accessed by HT.
The news has come as a surprise to industry experts and airline officials.
“Airlines are known to offer fat cheques to pilots as joining bonus, but even that is rare,” said a senior commander working with a private full-service airline.
“You would only offer such money if you have a serious shortage of pilots, or if you are growing quickly. Since IndiGo is known to plan for the long-term, I would assume they knew long back how many planes they would add every quarter or six months,” said a senior executive of a budget airline.
IndiGo refused to comment for the story.
The airline, the biggest by marketshare in India, announced in February that it will add 31 planes to its current fleet of 110 by March 2017. It has an estimated 1,600 pilots on its rolls. There is a serious shortage of type-rated commanders in the country, which forces Indian carriers to employ highly-paid expatriate pilots.
According to the aviation ministry, Indian carriers employed 286 foreign pilots as of June 30, 2015, with IndiGo leading the list (96).
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the airline’s parent company, reported a 53% rise in profit at ₹1,990 crore in 2015-16, compared to the previous fiscal year as it benefitted from a steep fall in jet fuel costs and gained marketshare.