In a latest announcement on Monday, Air India said that it has revamped the compensation structure for pilots and cabin crew, including increasing the per-hour flying rate for pilots.
Air India Revamps Compensation Structure For Employees
Basically, the salaries will be hiked for more than 2,700 pilots across Air India and AIX Connect (including Air Asia India and Air India Express) as well as for more than 5,600 of Air India’s cabin crew as part of the Tata Group-owned airline’s five-year transformation plan, source said.
An internal circular noted “We are pleased to announce a revision in the compensation of flying staff with effect from April 1, 2023. We have redesigned the compensation of flying staff to make our compensation structure simplified,”.
Under this new structure, the guaranteed flying allowance component has been doubled from the current 20 hours to 40 hours.
After this revision also it remained much lower compared to the pre-pandemic period when Air India pilots were entitled to a guaranteed 70 hours of flying.
Now, one year CTC of a trainee pilot stands at Rs 50,000 per month while a senior commander will earn Rs 8.50 lakh per month.
Moving ahead tha circular states that the salary of a fresh cabin crew has been pegged at Rs 25,000 per month, whereas the cabin executive will get Rs 78,000 per month.
Additional Compensation and Hiked Flying Allowance
Besides this, there is also a provision of additional compensation for pilots undergoing training for command upgrade and conversion training for the time spent in-ground and simulator training, according to the sources.
In addition with these changes, Air India has also hiked the pilots’ per-hour flying and flying allowance rates.
The airline will also be introducing an additional reward to recognise the long service of its tenured staff, and double the stipend for trainee pilots.
Pilot Contracts Extended And Promotions
Another change comes with the contracts of nearly 800 FTC (Fixed Term Contract) pilots, which were earlier renewed for 5 years, but will now be extended until the pilots attain the age of 58 years.
As of now, Air India has about 4,700 FTC cabin crew and nearly 1,000 permanent cabin crew.
Air India is also planning to introduce two additional levels/designations, Junior First Officer and Senior Commander.
According to sources, a large number of senior pilots, who have flown for four or more years as Commanders, will be promoted to the Senior Commander rank, giving them instant inclusion into the management cadre with extra allowance for executive duties.
As part of this new cabin crew organization structure, for both permanent and FTC cabin crew has been redesignated into four segments including Trainee Cabin Crew, Cabin Crew, Cabin Senior and Cabin Executive.
So, the trainee stipends for fresher and experienced cabin crew will be hiked by more than 20 percent, as per the sources.
The circular also talks about introducing additional allowances for cabin supervisors and their grooming.
Air India announced plans to hire more than 4,200 cabin crew trainees and 900 pilots during February this year.
It has placed orders for 470 planes with Boeing and Airbus.
