Air India facing shortage of pilots in long-haul, international routes

16 Dec 2022 , 07:50 AM

According to two pilot unions at Air India, not enough pilots are available to fly the airline’s long-haul and ultra-long-haul flights.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) have expressed their worries in light of the Tatas-owned airline lately cancelling and delaying some flights to and from THE North American region due to a crew shortage.

The unions stated, “…we cannot maintain the printed planned roster due to a scarcity of pilots, as CMS (crew management system) does not have standby pilots,” in a joint letter sent to Air India’s Chief Human Resources Officer Suresh Dutt Tripathi on December 13.

IPG represents pilots flying wide-body aircraft, and ICPA represents pilots flying narrow-body aircraft.

The number of leave cancellations and denials for pilots is astonishing, according to the unions.

The choice to acquire foreign pilots for the Boeing 777 fleet at a CTC (cost to corporation) that is “at least 80% greater with much higher leave benefits than what is being provided to its long-serving pilots” has also been questioned.

In January of this year, the Tata group acquired the losing Air India, and since then, it has been focusing on increasing fleet size and service offerings.

Additionally, the airline has not yet replaced many elements of the compensation structure that existed prior to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the pilots’ unions.

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