Encouraged by positive quarterly figures, India's largest airline IndiGo is reportedly bringing back pilot increments this year. IndiGo, like all other airlines, took quite a beating during the pandemic, which saw several of its employees dissatisfied over reduced salaries. But the airline has since then restored pilot salaries and will now restore increments in a few weeks.

Increments restored

IndiGo has decided to bring back annual increments of 4,500 pilots. According to a report by Business Standard, the airline's senior vice president (flight operations) Ashim Mitra has written in a staff email that these increments will be implemented from April 1st. The report quotes from the letter:

“The component of annual increment for Indian captains (₹10,000 per month or $120) and Indian first officers (₹5,000 per month or $60) on the Airbus and ATR fleet which was stopped due to Covid will restart from April 1, 2023.”

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An IndiGo official is also quoted in the report confirming the increment, now that business is picking up. But not all allowances are back. Pilots flying a certain number of hours were compensated for red-eye flights; that allowance is yet to be brought back.

Salary restoration

The restoration of annual increments of IndiGo pilots comes just a few months after their salaries were restored completely to pre-pandemic levels in November. This was done in two phases: the first in September and the final one in November.

Last year, several IndiGo employees expressed their displeasure over continued salary reduction despite air traffic picking up. In July 2022, IndiGo hit the headlines when several of its cabin crew members called in sick, affecting its flights throughout the country. It is widely assumed that they had gone for Air India's recruitment drive.

Photo: Suparat Chairatprasert | Shutterstock

In April, some IndiGo pilots were also investigated for unprofessional behavior after using the emergency radio frequency for personal conversations expressing displeasure over their salaries.

But, after months of steady operations and passengers getting comfortable with air travel again, IndiGo felt it was time to start increasing employee salaries. In July, the carrier also offered to re-examine the salaries of its aircraft maintenance technicians.

Getting busy

IndiGo announced a profitable third quarter ending in December 2022, with the airline's net profit standing at ₹14,226 million ($172.8 million). This was an almost 11-fold increase from the year before.

The low-cost carrier flew around 78 million passengers last year, including around 7.6 million international travelers and almost 19 million business travelers. It has also recently announced or started a slew of new flights in India and to the Middle East, as well as offered connections to Europe through its partnership with Turkish Airlines.

With operations picking up at such speeds, it makes sense for IndiGo to keep its employees satisfied by restoring compensation to pre-pandemic levels.

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Source: Business Standard