Where do we get captains from?’ AI, IndiGo locked in dogfight for pilots amid FDTL fallout; joining bonus up to Rs 50 lakh

NEW DELHI: Call it the IndiGo schedule collapse and its fallout impact. A clamour has broken out between the budget airline and Air India group over having adequate captains to avoid a repeat of what happened under the new safety-enhancing flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules.

IndiGo has had to commit to DGCA about hiring pilots — it will induct 100 in Jan itself — and AI has already come out with an ad for getting more aviators on board. But both the airlines are also facing a significant number of captain resignations — with some leaving one for the other and mostly for joining foreign carriers — so the hiring is also to ensure they don’t go below their current numbers which has made the scramble more intense that anything seen before in Indian skies.

For once, their balance sheet-centric human resource departments are on the back foot and can’t oppose sprucing of ranks after what happened earlier this month. A senior official of one of the two big Indian carriers claimed its captains are already getting “calls with joining bonus of upto Rs 50 lakh.”

“Where do we get captains from? Under the new FDTL, experienced pilots’ availability will become acute. There will be lot of poaching from each other,” said a senior airline official. A few years back, said a senior pilot, IndiGo had offered a joining bonus to experienced aviators to join which would take care of the bond payment, if any, needed to be paid to the airline they were resigning from. “This was in the range of Rs 15-25 lakh to take care of the bond, which back then was somewhere between Rs 5 and 15 lakh,” the pilot said.

"IndiGo’s workforce planning and recruitment decisions are driven solely by operational requirements and are conducted in full compliance with all applicable regulatory standards and internal governance policies. A couple of recent media reports suggesting that IndiGo is attracting pilots through unusually large incentives or bonuses are speculative and inaccurate. IndiGo remains firmly focused on delivering safe, reliable, and efficient services to its customers, while maintaining a fair, performance-based, and inclusive workplace for all employees," said an IndiGo spokesperson.

“India will witness a scramble for captains between Air India group and IndiGo. While Air India does not have a shortage as of now for its fleet except the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, it has to hire for the future. IndiGo will have to improve its pilot-management relations to retain and attract talent. Akasa does not need more pilots (it has a big surplus). Unless AI & IndiGo offer better working conditions to pilots, they will not be able to stem the flow to Middle East and other places like Vietnam,” said Captain Shakti Lumba, former VP of AI and IndiGo.

IndiGo has slightly raised pilot pay from next month, by enhancing some existing and adding new allowances. Air India is planning a major salvo which will be fired in first week of Jan and is a closely guarded secret within the airline.

Pilots at both AI Group and IndiGo have been unhappy for two main reasons — poor working condition and a pay structure that did not keep pace with inflation. While the FDT proposes to reduce fatigue, the tug of war means that both will have to become humane employers for pilots.

While IndiGo will have less strenuous working norms for pilots that will increase its requirement, AI plans to be ready for aircraft induction that is expected from next year. As of now, only AI’s Boeing 787 fleet pilots fly more while the B777 and Airbus A320 not so much. That should change from next year and AI does not want to be in Big Blue shoes when that happens.