There is good news for employees of Air India at last. Starting September, they will start getting the same salaries as they used to before the pandemic struck.
It may be recalled that Air India had cut its pilots’ salaries by 28 per cent in 2020.
Now, Air India has decided to restore the allowances for crew layovers as well as the meal arrangements for pilots and cabin crew.
It is pertinent to mention here that this development comes post the new owners of the Airline, the Tata Group came into the picture.
The Tata’s have not only started restoring the salaries of the employees but have also begun restructuring the compensation and allowances in alignment with the other airlines of the Group, that is, Vistara and AirAsia.
Vistara and AirAsia India had restored the salaries and flying allowances of pilots to pre-pandemic levels in May this year, while Air India had restored the salaries of its crew to some extent.
In April, Air India had restored salaries to almost 75% of the pre-pandemic level. Then, it restored 20% of the flying allowances.
Right now, the salaries are about 35 per cent below pre-COVID levels. The special pay and allowances of pilots that were cut by 40 per cent, will now be restored by 25 per cent.
According to a PTI report, Campbell Wilson, CEO and managing director, Air India, said that although they have a long way to go to achieve profitability, “sunsetting most of the COVID measures is an important and welcome milestone.”
