40 senior pilots quit Kingfisher Airlines in a month

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines, owned by the flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya, has seen 40 of its senior pilots quit over the past month as a cut in the number of planes and routes limits opportunities, multiple sources in the company said.
A total of 100 pilots have left the company in the past year, 16% of its total strength of 600. The Kingfisher spokesperson confirmed that the pilots had resigned, but said this was in no way out of the ordinary.
The majority of those quitting are at the commander level, senior pilots with over 2,000 hours of flying time and who are in charge of the plane during flights. Another 20 pilots too are set to put in their papers, said the sources.
The recent attrition excludes 100 trainee pilots Kingfisher benched three months ago after it cut its domestic capacity by 22% and brought down the number of flights per day to 350 from 600 about a year ago.
The term benched, which is borrowed from the IT industry, means that there is no work for these pilots. The airline has not yet said what will happen to these trainees though company sources say it has conveyed its inability to absorb them.
Industry officials say that Kingfisher’s path to recovery still seems shaky compared to its competitors that have started adding capacity as more people take to the skies in the wake of a rapid recovery from the downturn.
It is believed some of the Kingfisher pilots have joined Delhi-based low-budget carrier IndiGo, though this could not be confirmed. Other airlines, which are hiring pilots, include budget carrier SpiceJet, which is inducting three Boeing-737 in its fleet by this year end.
10/02/10 Manisha Singhal/Economic Times