In a major relief for pilots, IndiGo announces full salary restoration by Nov

IndiGo, the country’s largest airline by fleet size and market share, has announced that it will fully reinstate pilots’ salaries by November. All domestic carriers had cut staff salaries following the Covid-19-induced lockdowns that had resulted in a sharp drop in passenger traffic. Pilots’ salaries were cut by nearly 28 per cent at IndiGo during the period.
 
An internal communication accessed by Business Today stated that the airline might reinstate pay by 8 per cent in August from 6.5 per cent proposed in November earlier. 

“Despite the fuel and foreign exchange costs remaining prohibitive, we are hopeful that we will continue to inch our way back to profitability and higher growth. Our aim has been to constantly revisit our salary and remuneration and reinstate them to pre-Covid levels,” the statement attributed to the airline’s senior vice president of flight operations, Capt. Ashim Mittra read.
 
The airline also said that it will be restoring a further 6 per cent pay from September, while the remainder 6 per cent would be done in November.
 
Business Today reached out to IndiGo for an official comment on the development late Monday evening. The story will be updated as and when they respond.
 
The country’s aviation industry has been one of the most impacted industries due to the depreciating rupee and imported inflation since the beginning of the Russian military action in Ukraine in February. Due to elevated crude prices, fuel accounts for approximately 50 per cent of the operational expenditure of an Indian carrier now. 
 
An industry insider said that the decision by IndiGo may have been further prompted by newly privatised Air India’s plans to expand its fleet.
 
“As Air India prepares to induct long-range wide-body planes to its fleet, it will be training senior pilots from its ranks on those aircraft. It may thus end up hiring pilots from competitor airlines like IndiGo to meet the shortfall of cockpit crew for its narrow-body aircraft,” the person requesting anonymity said.
 
Domestic airlines carried 57.2 million passengers in the January-June 2022 as against 34.3 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, registering an annual growth of more than 66 per cent and monthly growth of over 237 per cent, according to data from aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). And as the post-Covid-19 recovery is expected to sustain the competition in India’s cutthroat aviation sector is expected to intensify further.

Also read: IndiGo’s Kolkata-bound flight cancelled after skidding on runway