Cut costs, reduce staff: Pilots to Air India

MUMBAI: Air India pilots in a letter on Monday to the carrier’s chairman and managing director Rajiv Bansal requested the management to resort to measures undertaken by private airlines, such as cutting costs and mandatory leave without pay, to cope with the current situation.

In the letter, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), comprising Airbus (narrow body) pilots, and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) comprising

Boeing (wide body) pilots asked the airline to exempt class IV employees from the 10% cut on allowances as they are more affected than other employees.

When HT contacted the airline, an Air India spokesperson said, “We would not like to comment on our internal matter.”

The airline currently has 1,600 pilots. The two bodies also asked Air India to reduce staff from some departments. They pointed out that the airline has more than 1,600 staff members in its human resource and finance departments. “This is nowhere in-line with market standards and since operations have been scaled back, their work has reduced drastically. It is prudent for Air India and MOCA [Ministry of Civil Aviation] to take cognisance of this excess manpower to trim costs as our aircraft stand underutilised,” the letter read.

A senior pilot, “We have 125 aircraft, of which half are not flying. Why do we then need full strength of ground staff, engineers, pilots and cabin crew? Like private airlines, Air India can also send employees on leave without pay for few days.”