Indian pilots resent better pay to expats

New Delhi: Sparks are flying between Indian and expat pilots who are increasingly being hired by airlines here to meet the flier shortage.
A section of Indian pilot community is seething over the disparity between their emoluments – ranging from a few lakhs in salaries to the accommodation being provided to them.
The situation has come to a point where the largest domestic carrier’s Indian pilots’ association – Society for
Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP) – has conducted a poll among all its 631 members on this issue. The SWIP ballot paper says talks with management on this issue have not yielded any result.
They have asked members whether they feel the management is doing enough to resolve the critical issues of Indian national pilots.
Sources said a majority of the respondents feel that managements are not doing enough to resolve critical issues of local pilots.
The two other questions are related to salary vis-a-vis other players and whether a union be formed?
Pilots of a legacy carrier point out that expat fliers get between $8,000 and $13,000.
An Indian commander, on the other hand, has a monthly salary of about Rs 5 lakh and after tax, his take home is over Rs 3 lakh.
Low cost carrier SpiceJet’s executive president CEO Siddantha Sharma said, “The salaries of both expat and Indian pilots are roughly the same. Expats are given accommodation that may cost about Rs 60-70,000 more.”
On their part, many Indian pilots allege their airlines could go on hiring expats thanks to a weak dollar.
17/12/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India