AI Express offers pilots 1L ‘hardship allowance’

New Delhi: After losing 49 pilots this year due to nonpayment of salaries, Air India is now pulling all stops to retain the ones who are still in its wings. Air India Express is offering to pay Rs 1 lakh extra per month to commanders who are willing to be posted in non-metro cities in south India. This move comes on the heels of the management signing a deal with Indian Airlines pilots for giving them fix pay of 72 hours' flying irrespective of the actual time spent in air to partly meet their demand of pay parity with AI pilots.
AI Express has offered a "hardship allowance" of Rs 1 lakh per month for commanders who opt for postings in cities like Kochi, Mangalore, Kozikhode and Trivandrum. The move, say sources, was necessitated after yet another strike-averting deal the management signed with AI pilots for bringing them back to the parent company from the LCC. Under the new agreement , commanders and copilots working on deputation in AI Express from AI will be sent back to the parent company after flying in the LCC for 1,500 and 2,000 hours, respectively.
"AI Express has 100 commanders and as many co-pilots . Of them, 44 commanders and 60-odd co-pilots would start returning to AI as per the new agreement. We need commanders and co-pilots for our flights. So this hardship allowance of Rs 1 lakh should be able to attract talent from even the private Indian carriers. After all, a jump is not very common in today's environment but we are doing it out of necessity," said a senior official.
19/12/11 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Budget Dec 2011, Air India Dec 2011