Indian pilots and cabin crew still struggle to negotiate salaries despite better airline operations

Representative image (Image: Reuters)

The Indian aviation industry, which has faced a number of challenges in the last few years, seems to have come out of it all unscathed. However, despite most airlines and airport operators in India eyeing growth and announcing expansion plans, most of India's pilots, cabin crew, and engineering fraternity are still struggling in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most pilots, cabin crew, and ground handling staff in India are underpaid and overworked compared to their international compatriots.

India's biggest airlines have still not restored the salaries of their employees to pre-COVID-19 levels, citing rise in fuel costs and limited domestic passenger operations.

While IndiGo is expected to restore salaries of its pilots, cabin crew, and ground handling staff to pre-COVID-19 levels by September, SpiceJet's employees have been struggling with delayed payments.

GoFirst's employees had also protested against low salaries in July, but were told to return to work and trust the airline.

Despite the entry of airlines like Akasa Air and Jet Airways into the Indian aviation space, salaries, and jobs of aviation personnel are not expected to rise for the next few years.

"Most aviation personnel in India are scared of losing their jobs after the collapse of Kingfisher and Jet Airways, which has given airlines in India the opportunity to hire people at much cheaper rates in the last few years," Lokesh Sharma, a senior aviation consultant, said.

He added that despite discontent among employees in aviation, most of them have spent considerable amounts of money to fund their training and can't afford to lose their jobs.

Another aviation consultant Praveen Paul said that Indian aviation employees prefer stability and job security and are therefore unwilling to fight for raises and less work in bigger airlines.

“Indigo, and Tata’s Air India will not lose any talent, while SpiceJet, and Go Air may lose, as employees feel whatever happens they get their salaries on time at Air India and Indigo,” Paul said.

While the central government has often said that there is a deficit of pilots, cabin crew, and ground handling staff in India, most current airlines in India had hired staff who were struggling to find jobs after the collapse of large domestic airlines, including Jet Airways in 2018 and Kingfisher in 2016.

VK Singh, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said in an answer in parliament that India needs 1,000 fresh commercial pilots every year.

According to a report by CAPA – Centre for Aviation, India will require an additional 17,000 pilots in the next 10 years, of which 9,000 first officers will be upgraded to commanders.

Reality check

However, the ground reality is a lot worse.

Abhinav Singh, founder of Hercules Aviation Training School, said that despite the need for pilots in the Indian aviation industry, most pilots, cabin crew, and ground handling staff tend to overwork and do overtime in order to earn higher salaries.

"On an average most pilots and cabin crew with less than seven years of work experience in India, fly more than 65 hours a week, which is much higher than the 50 hours a week in countries like the US, UK, and Canada," Singh said.

The collapse of Jet Airways, COVID-19 pandemic, grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, and privatization of Air India have seen India's fleet addition in the last five years getting squeezed.

"IndiGo has added nearly 80 percent of India's aircraft capacity in the last five years and is expected to be the airline with the biggest capacity addition for the next two more years as well," a senior aviation official said.

He added that IndiGo has hired the most number of pilots from the open market, but has preferred developing its own talent through its partner aviation programs.

However, there is growing demand for senior ground handling staff, pilots, and cabin crew in India.

"Pilots, grounding handling staff, and cabin crew with more than 10 years of work experience are in demand as airlines add capacity in India," Sharma said.

He added that while there is demand for senior officials, they constitute less than 20 percent of the total aviation industry personnel.

Better days ahead?

However, due to the expansion plans of most airlines in India, the ground reality for aviation personnel in India is expected to improve.

IndiGo, Air India, GoFirst, Vistara, Akasa Air, Jet Airways, and SpiceJet are all expected to expand their fleets.

Air India is expected to order as many as 300 narrow-body jets in the next few months. IndiGo has more than 550 Airbus A320neos and A321neos on order and the airline will look to expand its fleet to 300 by 2024-25.

Akasa Air has ordered 72 Boeing 737 Max jets and Jet Airways is expected to order new planes in the next couple of months.

GoFirst plans to take delivery of 10 aircraft a year until 2024-25 and another 72 aircraft between 2024-25 and 2026-27. SpiceJet plans to take delivery of seven Boeing 737 Max jets this year, while the carrier negotiates deliveries of its order for 155 Boeing planes.

All these airlines will need to hire pilots, cabin crew, ground handling staff and engineering employees to operate their growing fleet in the next few years.