Akasa Air moves court against 43 pilots for quitting without notice

Akasa Air has moved court against 43 pilots claiming that they have quit the airline without completing a notice period of six months. The airline in a petition filed with Bombay High Court has sought that pilots be barred joining any airline till the time they complete the mandatory notice period, which was part of employment agreement.

In its petition, the airline also said that due to sudden resignation of the pilots, it was forced to cancel multiple flights, causing financial and reputational loss to the airline and has sought monetary compensation of Rs 21 crore, which includes cost of training one pilot, according to a petition reviewed by ET.

The airline which started business last year and was rapidly expanding lost 1% market share due to cancellation of over 632 flights in August.


“We have sought legal remedy only against a small set of pilots who abandoned their duties and left without serving their mandatory contractual notice period.


This is illegal in law but also an unethical and selfish act that disrupted flights in August forcing last minute cancellations that stranded thousands of customers causing significant inconvenience to the travelling public,” an Akasa spokesperson said.

Pilots who have quit the airline said that the airline violated contractual agreement by altering salary structure. In June, Akasa had reduced the payment to Rs 7,500 from Rs 10,000 for every hour flown by a pilot beyond the monthly quota of 40 hours.

The court battle points to the struggle of Indian airlines to find senior captains and trainers after record aircraft orders.

Airlines are poised for their busiest year of pilot hiring in more than three years as they try to restock a workforce reduced during the pandemic and strained by a quick rebound in travel. To retain pilots, Akasa has been forced to increase salaries twice in the last two months in order to retain pilots

Since June, 43 pilots of Akasa Air, operating the Boeing 737 Max have left the airline with many quitting in less than a week’s notice, forcing it to cancel and reschedule flights. Many have joined Tata-owned Air India Express, which also operate similar types of aircraft making it easier to hire from each other due to similar training and procedure.

However, an Air India Express spokesperson said less than 10% of fresh hires were from Akasa while bulk of it were through internal upgrades & transfers

Both Akasa Air and Air India Express have plans for rapid expansion and together will add around 70 new aircraft by the end of 2024. Akasa has added 20 aircraft in less than one year since it started business last August. Air India Express, fuelled by investment from the Tatas, has chalked out an aggressive expansion plan of deploying 50 Boeing 737 Max by the end of 2024. Out of those, 25 planes will be added by June.

Akasa had also written to aviation regulator DGCA to take coercive action against the pilots, DGCA refused to intervene while a 2017 rule of the regulator makes it mandatory for commanders to serve a notice period of one year and first officers a notice period of six months, as the rule has been challenged by multiple pilots’ unions and is sub-judice in Delhi High Court.

Shakti Lumba, former head of operations at IndiGo who is trying to form a union of pilots said that duration of notice period is valid only if it was a part of the employment agreement between the airline and the pilot. “If the airline has altered salary structure or any benefit, the agreement stands null and void,” he said.