IndiGo to reinstate pilots’ salaries to pre-Covid level by November

Soon after the Covid-induced lockdown in March 2020, the airline revised its pay structure slashing salaries by 28-40%, according to pilots who spoke with Hindustan Times.

Mumbai: Low-cost airline IndiGo on Monday told pilots -- including captains, first officers and junior first officers -- that it will reinstate their salaries to pre-Covid levels by November. This will be done in two increments of 6% each, in September and November.

A spokesperson for the airline corroborated this development but declined to elaborate on the same. (MINT)

Soon after the Covid-induced lockdown in March 2020, the airline revised its pay structure slashing salaries by 28-40%, according to pilots who spoke with Hindustan Times.

In an internal email to employees on Monday, senior vice-president of flight operations at IndiGo, Ashim Mittra, wrote, “Despite the fuel and foreign exchange costs remaining prohibitive, we are hopeful that we will continue to inch our way back to profitability and higher growth. Our aim has been to constantly revisit our salary and remuneration and reinstate them to pre-Covid levels. Keeping that in mind, I am pleased to announce a further 6% reinstatement of salaries effective 1st September 2022 and the remaining 6% shall be reinstated on 1st November 2022 as we all welcome the festival of lights. These reinstatements will bring your salaries at par with pre-Covid level.”

A spokesperson for the airline corroborated this development but declined to elaborate on the same.

Earlier in April, IndiGo had reinstated the salaries of its pilots by 8%, relative to the revised amount post-Covid. An internal communique to employees soon after had stated, “We were able to reinstate 8% effective April 1, 2022, and had committed to you that an additional 6.5% would be implemented from November 1, 2022, based on the environment. Subsequently, based on your feedback and enhanced stability in our commercial network, we were able to reinstate layover and deadlock allowances to pre-covid levels effective July 1, 2022.”

Unhappy with only a partial reinstating of salaries, a majority of aircraft technicians at IndiGo in early July had reported sick and skipped work to press for salary hikes.

Airline personnel at the time added that very few reported for their night shifts at the Delhi and Hyderabad airports. A week before that, the budget carrier’s flight operations were hit by en masse leave when employees opted to appear for walk-in recruitment interviews at rival Air India.