CEO reveals Vistara’s secret for retaining employees

At a time when most Indian carriers are finding it hard to retain their cockpit crew in the face of increased poaching by domestic and foreign rivals, the Tata Group-Singapore Airlines-promoted Vistara has said less than five pilots have left the airline in the last 20 months.

At a time when most Indian carriers are finding it hard to retain their cockpit crew in the face of increased poaching by domestic and foreign rivals, the Tata Group-Singapore Airlines-promoted Vistara has said less than five pilots have left the airline in the last 20 months.

Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO of Vistara says that it is the work culture in his company that ensures a low rate of attrition. (HT Archive)

“No one has left us for domestic Indian carriers. Our attrition rate is the lowest in the industry,” Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said.

In order to retain pilots for a longer time, some Indian carriers have even demanded doubling of the mandatory notice period that they have to serve after resigning to one year.

“Less than five have left in last 20 months. The people who have left us have left for international airlines and not for domestic Indian carriers. We have around 150 pilots and I can’t hang on to them by way of salary or recruit them for ten times their salary. It’s about the work culture,” Phee Teik said.

“What we pay the pilots is not different from what the other airlines are paying. But we are glad that a lot of pilots are coming to us.”

Vistara, which gets its 13th aircraft next month, plans to operate 530 flights per week by the year end. The airline plans to have a fleet of 20 planes by June 2018, which would include seven Airbus A320 Neos.