Kingfisher now targets senior pilots

Bangalore: The worst is not yet over for people working in the aviation industry in India, which is witnessing its worst slump. Kingfisher Airlines, which earlier forced the trainee pilots to accept a pay cut, has now targeted the senior pilots. The airline has asked the pilots to take a 20 per cent paycut and also cancelled their orders for buying A340 aircraft. The decision to cancel the order has angered many pilots as they had spent over Rs 10 lakh for training to fly the larger Airbus A340.
Most of the pilots are in dilemma as the aviation market is in a flux. They have no choice other than continuing with the existing job.One of the pilots, on condition of anonymity, said, “We are being ill treated.
Now, no one can trust the firms, all of them are taking advantage of the situation.” When contacted, the carrier defended the move by saying that they had no choice as the “whole turmoil had made the situation sick”. The airline officials said that “high prices, along with the taxes, had made the Aviation Turbine fuel over 60 per cent costlier in India than in other countries”, and in this kind of situation this is the best that firms can do. As the passenger traffic has gone down drastically, fares have also seen a steady rise. Moreover, the passenger growth has dropped by 25 per cent. More than 25 flights have been cancelled at Mumbai and Delhi airports due to the drop in the number of passengers.
Airlines have reduced capacity by over 30 per cent and even cancelled their aircraft orders. The present decisions can be read in the backdrop of the recent airlines consolidations, where the airline companies said that aviation industry is staring at a loss of around Rs. 2000 billion.
26/10/08 Mohammed Shariff/Express Buzz