New Delhi: Air India pilots on Thursday said the concerns about remuneration and work-life balance raised by their peers at Vistara were symbolic of systemic issues that cut across Tata group’s aviation entities, in a sign of a broader discontent among the conglomerate’s pilot community.
In a letter dated 4 April, Air India’s pilot bodies Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) wrote to Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran, emphasizing that the demands of Vistara pilots were reflective of broader challenges prevalent within the Tata Group airlines.
IPG represents the wide-body aircraft pilots at the airline, while ICPA represents pilots who operate the narrow-body fleet of Air India.
“It is crucial to recognize that the concerns expressed by the Vistara pilots are not isolated incidents but rather indicative of systemic issues that extend across various Tata Group aviation entities. The issues of 70 hours fixed remuneration, approval of leaves, adequate rest periods, unstable roster, stretching pilots to max flight duty, botched roster practices and an unsupportive work environment are consistently echoed by pilots across different Tata Group airlines,” the pilot bodies said in the letter.
There have been instances where HR (human resource) has resorted to threatening pilots with potential disruptions to their future, accompanied by severe consequences, the letter read.
“Pilots who feel threatened or intimidated may be reluctant to report safety concerns or speak up about issues that could impact flight operations,” it added.
The two pilot bodies have urged the Tata Group leadership to engage in a constructive dialogue with the pilot community and take proactive measures to address their grievances.
Vistara, a 51:49 joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, has been facing network disruptions, with over 50 flights cancellations a day since the start of the week, as pilots called in sick en masse, ostensibly to protest a new pay structure that reduced their salaries. On Thursday, the flight cancellations reduced to around 20 flights. The on-time performance of the airline improved to 86% on 3 April, from nearly 70% on 2 Apr.
The full-service carrier has blamed poor rostering for the disruption to its network over the last few weeks and the airline may have to curtail its network for May as well to gradually stabilise operations, two people aware of the development told Mint.
The company’s chief executive Vinod Kannan addressed the pilot community at the airline on Wednesday following a spree of flight delays and cancellations, leaving thousands of disgruntled passengers.
“The airline showed a poor planning for redundancies, especially for the month of March, and this left the network in a chaos after a large number of unplanned sick leaves were reported,” one of the people aware of the development said.
The Delhi-based airline further witnessed the repercussions of poor rostering following large number of unplanned sick leaves as there were not enough pilots to back up and the existing lot were already stretched to their maximum limits, he added.
The relationship between the airline and some pilots has soured over the last few months over implementation of a uniform pay structure, which effectively reduced the salaries of Vistara pilots by bringing them at par with Air India.
Under the transition in the run-up to the merger between Air India and Vistara, the pilots of Vistara get a fixed salary for 40 hours instead of 70 hours earlier. In addition, they receive payment in lieu of extra flying hours and rewards will also be given based on the years of service with the airline.
In view of the various flight disruptions, DGCA asked Vistara to submit daily information and details on the flights that are being cancelled and delayed.
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