Air India for 10% cut in expat pilots' wages

Under pressure from its pilot unions, Air India is understood to have proposed a 10 per cent cut in the salaries of about 150 expat pilots currently on its rolls.

"The managment has proposed a 10 per cent reduction in the salaries of the expat pilots," sources familiar with the development said, weeks after the pilots unions demanded compatibility between their pay package and that of foreign pilots.

In addition, the managment is also considering slashing the bonuses of foreign pilots by 50 per cent and stopping the reimbursement of their travelling allowances, they said.

Currently, there are around 810 expat pilots employed by five airlines--Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, IndiGo and SpiceJet.

Air India alone has around 153 pilots, besides 1,253 Indian pilots and about 200 trainees.

A major demand of the Indian pilots unions like ICPA and Indian Pilots Guild, who had in the past gone on agitation, has been to curtail the packages offered to the expats as a cost-cutting measure and ensure some compatibility between the Indian and foreign pilots' pays and allowances.

Air India has plans to implement the proposal from January and has written to various international pilots recruitment agencies. But the agencies have sought some time as they want to consult with these pilots before accepting or rejecting the proposal, the sources said.

In response to an RTI application, National Aviation Co of India (NACIL), which operates Air India, had said it paid Rs 93.29 crore (Rs 932.9 million) towards salaries and expenses to the agencies which provided expatriate pilots to Air India and Air India Express in the last fiscal.

Of this, Air India paid Rs 46.63 crore ($93,27,644.23) and Air India Express spent Rs 46.66 crore ($93,33,732.11) on expat pilots.

The expat pilots are paid through approved agencies which are given a monthly fee.

Air India hires its expat pilots from global hiring agencies like Rishworth and Sigmar.

As per the reply to the RTI application, NACIL had said a Boeing-737 commanding pilot is paid $10,000, while a B-777 commanding pilot is paid $12,700 and a B-747, Airbus A-310 commander pilot is paid $8,750 as salary.

They also get a yearly bonus of $12,000, $13,000 and $15,000 on completion of one, two and three/four years in service respectively.

In addition, the company spends up to Rs 7,500 per day to accommodate foreign pilots in hotels and provide chauffeur-driven air conditioned cars for non-flying duties as well.

With a total staff strength of 30,505, the airline is targeting to lower its total manpower costs from Rs 839 crore (Rs 8.39 billion) in the first two quarters of the current financial year to Rs 650 crore (Rs 6.50 billion) in the next two quarters, official figures show.