Spicejet revises salary structures of senior pilots
NEW DELHI: Domestic airline carrier Spicejet on Wednesday hiked salaries of their senior pilots to ₹7 lakh per month for a flying time of 80 hours per month with effect from 1 November.
An airline spokesperson said, “Following the latest hike, the salary of Captains at Spicejet will be higher as compared to their pre-covid salary.”
The spokesperson added that pay structures of all flying crew members had been revised accordingly.
“Salaries of trainers (Designated Examiner, Type Ratings Instructor and Line Training Captain) and senior first officers have also been increased commensurately,” the spokesperson said.
Experts questioned the criterion of flying 80 hours per month saying that it would lead to pressure on the pilots.
“Flying 80 hours per month is a tough criterion for a pilot flying on domestic routes,” said one expert, asking not to be named.
A former airline pilot said flying 80 hours per month might not be possible in all conditions.
“Completing 80 hours of flying means at least 25 days of flying with around four landings in a day. This can be done for a month if one attempts to do his best, provided the flight operations are normal. But flying 80 hours every month is a difficult task. A pilot attempting to fly 80 hours every month will lose his health, apart from being stressed,” said the pilot, also asking not to be named.
“80 hours are comfortably doable for a pilot flying ultralong-haul flights (to the US, Canada, etc) but equally burdensome and exhausting for pilots operating domestic sectors. This criterion would be manageable if it would be 60-70 hours instead of 80,” the former airline pilot added.
However, Spicejet officials said the airline has been consistently increasing the base salary of pilots. “As compared to August, the September salary saw an increase of up to 10% for trainers and 8% for Captains and for officers (co-pilots). From October, salary was hiked by another 22% for Captains and First Officers,” the spokesperson said.
Another airline official, asking not to be named, said, “Pilots flying for 70 hours in a month will see an increase to ₹6.13 lakh from the current ₹4.5 lakh as per the internal communication shared with the employees.”
The move comes a month after the airline sent 80 pilots on leave without pay.
“Forty pilots and 40 co-pilots flying Boeing 737s were sent on leave without pay starting September 20 for three months, and were not given any reason for it,” an airline official had told HT.
However, the airline had said it was a temporary measure to rationalise costs and clarified that the pilots will remain eligible for all other employee benefits such as insurance and employee leave travel during the furlough period.