Akasa Air hikes pilots' salaries by up to 15% to retain them

New Delhi: Akasa Air has hiked the salary of pilots by up to 15% in order to retain its pilots as it prepares for a faster expansion, according to an internal memo reviewed by ET.

The revised pay structure will take effect from January 1, 2027, with fixed monthly salaries increasing across all eight pilot grades, from first officers to designated examiners.

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The airline inducted its 14th aircraft of the year yesterday taking its fleet size to 45 and plans to add eight more by the end of this fiscal. It has 181 more planes on order.

Akasa Air is backed by the family of late billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala along with family offices of Wipro owner Azim Premji and Manipal group owner Ranjan Pai.

A spokesperson of Akasa Air didn’t respond to queries on the topic.

Despite high fuel prices, impacting growth Indian carriers are set for induction of new planes starting next year with IndiGo, Air India Express and Akasa set to induct over 100 planes.

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Airline executives said that despite the current slow down, they will try to hold onto pilots and recruit new ones as it takes time to train them to get eligible for flying.

Increasing the number of pilots demands a continuous training process at airlines as trainee first officers need six months of training before becoming first officers.

First Officers only after a minimum of 1,500 hours are eligible to get upgraded as captains while individual airlines can have higher limit.

Regulations of civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) require airlines to have 3 sets of pilots including one captain and one first officer per aircraft. However, for IndiGo the requirement becomes more than double of that due to the airline’s high utilisation of aircraft.