Jet looks at cutting pilots’ salaries

New Delhi: From being a priceless professional in short supply till some months back, highly-paid pilots are now becoming one of the major areas o
f cost cutting for India’s loss-making airlines. Close on the heels of Kingfisher, Jet Airways is looking at cutting salaries of its pilots by about 20% from next month. Apart from cutting salaries, Indian carriers have now started sending the “more expensive” foreign pilots back.
The expats’ number has fallen from 944 in February, 2008, to less than 900 now. In past three years, foreign pilots’ numbers were rising almost every month due to a shortage of trained fliers here.
A senior Jet Airways pilot said the management has begun sounding out pilots about this move before making a formal announcement in coming days. “We are being told of the financial difficulty the company is facing and that we all need to tighten our belt to helps the company survive this tough time. Anyway the market is so tight that there’s no option but to accept a reduced pay for noe,” said a pilot. Jet has about 800 pilots with salaries ranging from Rs 80,000 to Rs 3.5 lakh.
A senior Jet official said: “We have not taken a final decision as yet. But the senior people, including pilots, in the company may have a cut in their pay package. So people are anticipating something. What and how much is that, is not yet finalised.” After the fire and hire fiasco of 1,900 cabin crew staffers, the airline is clearly handling its HR issues very sensitively.
24/10/08 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times