CEO of Air India: Campbell Wilson, the CEO of Air India, announced in a note to his staff on Friday that a vast majority of the Tata-owned airline’s pilots and cabin crew have accepted the new compensation package offered by the company which will be effective from April 1, 2023.
The internal note said, “I’m pleased to report that 90 percent of cabin crew and a majority of pilots have received and accepted the new compensation package offered last week, which will be backdated to 1 April 2023,”This announcement came after around 1,500 Air India pilots had written a letter to Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, requesting his intervention over the airline’s proposed revised terms and conditions of service. The airline had announced a new salary structure for its pilots and cabin crew last week, but the staff was unhappy with the revisions, particularly with the promotion of captains with more than four years of management experience.
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) had sent legal notices to Air India on April 21 over the revised compensation package. Wilson informed the airline’s employees that Air India’s implementation team would continue to resolve queries regarding crew fatigue and roster instability in the upcoming weeks.
Furthermore, Wilson revealed that Air India will be implementing Jeppesen rostering tools for its cabin crew from August. Due to Air India’s failure to address any of the pilots’ concerns regarding the recently announced work conditions and pay structure, the Indian airline and some of its pilots have been at odds.
To resolve the growing tensions between the staff and the management, the airline held a town hall meeting on April 25. On April 27, Air India also announced that it was planning to hire over 1,000 pilots.
