Trainee pilots accept pay cut; say they don’t have a choice

Mumbai: It’s now evident that the downward spiral to hit the Indian aviation sector has steadily seeped into the minds of airline employees. Because, on being probed for their reactions on Saturday’s salary cuts by the country’s second largest private airline, pilots including Kingfisher’s trainee co-pilots who became the first ones to face the axe, said they had no choice but to accept salary cuts as long as their jobs were secure. “If that’s the imperative, then we don’t have much choice as long as our jobs are secured,” said a Kingfisher airline trainee pilot on the salary cuts.
But what has also become a cause of concern among many trainee pilots and co-pilots is the recovery of substantial amounts of money that they spent on clocking flying hours in order to obtain a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) to help them kick-start their aviation careers. “The per-hour cost of flying in India comes to about Rs 3,500 and you need a minimum of 250 flying hours to be get a CPL which comes to about Rs 9 lakh. But most students prefer to get their training from countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States where you end up paying an average of 25 to 35 thousand dollars on your training to get a CPL,” said a trainee pilot with Kingfisher, who spent $28,000 in his training from the US. Still, according to him, he will accept the pay cut as long as his job is secure with the airline.
“It’s better to have jobs with salary cuts because as and when the scenario improves, we’ll get the usual salaries back,” said another trainee pilot.
20/10/08 Shashank Shekhar/Indian Express