Amid rapid expansion plans driven by higher passenger growth, low airfares and stiff competition among domestic airlines, there is an increasing demand for pilots and cabin crew members. Not surprisingly then low-cost carrier IndiGo airlines has witnessed about 25 pilots leaving the company in the last six months and about a dozen of them have reportedly joined IndiGo's competitors.
Hence, in a bid to retain the pilots, airlines, including IndiGo, have either extended or they are considering to extend the length of minimum notice period to one year from six months previously, Press Trust of India reported. On its part, IndiGo claimed that other airlines are following the same (of increasing notice period time frame).
"As for seeking the extension of mandatory minimum notice period to one year from six months, we would like to state that on behalf of Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), all member airlines of the FIA along with Air India and not IndiGo alone, have requested for the same," PTI cited the airline's statement as saying.
The FIA is a federation of domestic airlines whose members include IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir.
IndiGo is India's largest airline in terms of market share at 39.8 percent in July.
"As per the internal records, in the last six months, we have seen the exit of less than 25 pilots from IndiGo and less than half of them have joined any of our competitors," the spokesperson told the news agency.
IndiGo Airlines owner InterGlobe Aviation reported a 7.4 percent fall in net profit to Rs. 591.7 crore for the June quarter of financial year 2016-17 (FY 2017) on account of competitive fare price in India's thriving airlines sector. Net profit in the corresponding quarter last fiscal was Rs. 638.8 crore.
