March 28, 2024

extraordinaryinfo

Delighting finance buffs

Air India pilots write to CMD, suggest ways to sustain airline’s financial health

Two pilot wings of national carrier Air India — Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association( ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) — have written a letter to the airline’s Chairman and MD (CMD) Rajiv Bansal, mentioning steps that should be taken to secure the survival of Air India.

The letter addressed to the Air India CMD suggests ways on what the airline should be doing at a time when the aviation sector in general and AI in particular is facing multiple challenges due to the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown.

“Presently, the management has resorted to an across the board 10 per cent cut on allowances. While prima facie appearing to be fair, this scheme distributes the financial burden across the various categories of employees in an extremely discriminatory manner amounting to treating unequal people equally,” said the pilots in the letter.

Also Read | Air India Recruitment 2020: Get salary up to Rs 1.5 lakh, apply before July 22

ICPA and IPG have also suggested that Class IV workers be kept away from the allowance cut.

“The Class IV employees, who are at the bottom of the organisation’s ladder, are more severely affected by such a salary cut than the employees at higher grades,” the letter read.

“We, therefore, propose that Class IV employees should be exempt from such a wage cut. Their liability can be borne by other employees who are earning higher salaries.”

The pilot body has also suggested the national carrier to take cues from other airlines and follow such mechanisms to cut costs by doing away with excess manpower.

“Air India should also be guided by how other players in the aviation sector are battling the adversities of the coronavirus pandemic. We understand that a leading private carrier has an employee strength of 250 in finance and 130 in HR, handling a fleet of 255 aircrafts. This may be contrasted with Air India which has more than 1600 employees in HR and Finance for a mere 125 aircrafts,” the letter stated.

“This is nowhere in line with market standards and since operations have been scaled back, their workload has reduced drastically. It is prudent for Air India and the MoCA to take cognisance of this excess manpower and trim costs as our aircraft stand under-utilised.”

The pilot body also says that it is time for the national carrier to also look at its employment policies and has suggested measures to get prudent with financial exercises.

Also Read | Mumbai airport police files FIR against Air India pilot for threatening DGCA official

“The pandemic-induced crisis is the most opportune time for Air India to address its unviable employment policies and practices. In addition to this excessive staffing of backend operations, the airline is also inexplicably maintaining departments that are completely non-relevant to the aviation business,” the letter added.

“It is high time to take a closer look at the viability of funding defunct departments at the cost of financial viability. It is supremely ironic that the management has done nothing about fixing bloated aircraft to employee ratios or trimming non-essential workforce while simultaneously crying wolf and preaching the need for urgent salary cutbacks,” the pilot bodies wrote.

The pilot bodies also said that the employee strength should be brought down at par with other market players through measures like “compulsory leave without pay” till the situation normalises.

Talking to India Today TV, a member of ICPA said Air India has ten times more staff than a leading private carrier and hence it needs to look into the suggested issues.

“If any meaningful cost-saving has to be effected, the financial burden must be fairly distributed between all employees based on their job functions and emoluments,” the letter mentioned.

Also Read | International flights not to resume before July 31, some on selected routes may be allowed: DGCA

Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from

  • Andriod App
  • IOS App

Source Article