New Delhi, April 6
The hammering of final nails in the coffins of Indian Airlines and the Alliance Air seems to have begun with the expanding private airlines’ and those looking to start their operations afresh poaching heavily on the public sector airlines for their experienced pilots.
While the Ministry of Civil aviation has chosen to turn a blind eye to this poaching from the private airlines’, Indian Airlines seems to be the biggest loser. Although at present only two IA pilots have tendered their resignations, sources in the airiline said that at least 25 more were in line to submit their resignation.
The blow to the IA comes at a time when it is not only looking for a level playing field from the Ministry of Civil Aviation as against the private airlines’ but is also desparately seeking to expand its fleet and awaiting clearance for its expansion plans from the government. IA, as part of its expansion plans is also looking to fly to more destinations abroad, even to destinations trans-Atlantic.
The IA subsiadiary, Alliance Air is no better off with as many as 12 of its pilots having already left the airline. The resignation of at least five more pilots is said to be in dispute with the authorities.
Sources said, the authorities had in fact pressed panic buttons and had even made attempts to bring back the pilots who had resigned. The top officials of the IA apparently held a meeting with these pilots but to no avail. All the flight schedules of the airline have also gone haywire due to these resignations and there are just about 40 more pilots left in its strength.
Sources said with the government not willing to hike the pay scale of the pilots, the private airlines’ are having a field day offering fat pay packages to the IA and the Alliance Air pilots.
Apparently, one of the private airline is offering the pilots almost Rs 5 lakh per month. Others have given an open offer of a hike of at least Rs 1 lakh over the last drawn pay of the pilot in the IA or in Alliance Air. The IA and Alliance Air pilots presently make between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh per month.
Reports here suggested that at present there were no plans to bring about a hike in the pay of the pilots in the public sector airlines’ which is actually proving to be a dampner and demotivating for the pilots.
Incidentally, the poaching on the public sector airlines’ pilots comes at a time when Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel recently asked the private airlines’ not to adopt means to wean away pilots from IA and Alliance Air. He has also sought to convene the meeting of all the airlines’ to resolve the issue, but that meeting does not seem to be in sight.
There are about 1,200 trained commercial pilots in the country flying 165 jets. The problem is: there are not enough commanders among them.
With an unprecedented boom in the civil aviation sector, the country is running short of pilots. Most carriers, state-owned as well as private, are in a scramble to lay their hands on trained pilots.
The problem will increase in future as the number of jets flying in the country is set to leapfrog to over 500 in the next five years. To tide over the crisis, the government recently raised the retirement age limit of pilots (60 years) by a year.
