The Indian flag carrier Air India has abruptly terminated the employment of 48 pilots causing a huge uproar within the Indian aviation industry. The pilots’ employment was terminated after 10 PM on Thursday, August 13th, 2020, without prior notice and some of them even flew the next day. All the pilots in question were type rated for the Airbus A320 fleet.
An Air India A320neo on finals at Mumbai International Airport. Photo by Karam Sodhi | AeroNewsX
The pilots that were sacked had initially submitted their resignation to the airline last year due to non-payment of salaries and dues but were withdrawn by the pilots soon after, as employees are allowed to revoke their resignations within six months. The withdrawal of the resignations was initially accepted by the airline but was, it seems, suddenly revoked with all the pilots fired. The letter written to the affected pilots read as follows: “The current operations are a small fraction of pre-COVID level and are unlikely to increase in the near foreseeable future. The company is incurring huge net losses and does not have the financial ability to pay.”
The uproar caused due to these terminations has given rise to a lot of anger from the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) towards Air India. The pilot body has called it an illegal termination and seeks immediate intervention from the MD of Air India, Rajiv Bansal.
The pilot body said: "We have only recently written to you bringing to light the bias and excesses of the personnel department towards pilots. The ink is barely dry on that letter and the Personnel Department is once again running amok, breaking all rules and the Law of the land. Yesterday night, around 50 pilots have received illegal termination letters from Personnel Department in blatant violation of Company’s Operation Manual and service rules."
The ICPA letter also talks of the pilot that was made to operate a flight a day after he was terminated, calling it unethical and a flight safety hazard and also throws light on what the state of mind of the operating pilot must have been.
Air India has however replied and tried to invalidate the claims of the ICPA by citing a Supreme Court order of 2019 relating to employee termination.
In other news from the troubled flag carrier, the TATA Group, the initial owners and founders of Air India in 1946, have shown interest in purchasing a stake in the airline. The TATA Group is also searching for partner investors to purchase minority stakes. Various equity firms have shown interest in the deal and are eager to partner with the highly experienced TATA Group. The Group currently also has stakes in Vistara and Air Asia India.
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