Cash-strapped, but Air India to give pay parity to pilots

Mumbai: The Air India management has reached an agreement with pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines on the contentious issue of pay parity. Fearing another agitation from the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), the airline’s management has agreed to the union’s demands for fixed allowances each month.
Senior airline executives and representatives of the ICPA held a marathon meeting in the national capital which went into the early hours on Thursday before the two parties arrived at an interim settlement. According to sources, ex-Indian Airlines pilots would now be paid a fixed flying allowance for 72 hours each month. Further, they would get $1,000-1,500 as layover allowance on assignments to fly abroad.
“This is just an interim settlement,” a source with the airline said, noting the issue of pay parity was still before the D M Dharmadhikari Committee. This agreement will now be put up for approval before the airline board. AI spokespersons did not respond to Business Standard for comment. ICPA general secretary Rishabh Kapur chose to keep mum. “Nothing yet,” he responded to an SMS query.
The decision to enhance pilot allowances will burden the debt-ridden airline, though its exact impact could not be ascertained. “On the one hand,” remarked an aviation expert, “Air India plans to save Rs 20 crore by stopping hot meals on short-distance flights; on the other, it is giving a bonanza to pilots.”
02/12/11 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Categories: Air India Dec 2011