Akasa Air to hike pilots’ salaries by up to 20% from January 2027 as it expands fleet and routes

Akasa Air will raise pilots’ salaries by up to 20 per cent from January 1, 2027, as the four-year-old airline adds more aircraft and routes. It will also increase the minimum protected flying hours for pilots to 50 a month and give them more days of annual leave.

According to a PTI report, fixed salaries and hourly payouts will go up under the new structure. Captain Sanket Limaye, the airline’s Director of Flight Operations, told pilots about the changes at an internal meeting on Wednesday. Akasa Air did not comment.

Minimum protected flying hours are the hours for which a pilot gets guaranteed pay in a month, whether or not the pilot flies them. For the standard work pattern, this will now be 50 hours.


The minimum annual leave will go up to 42 days. The number can rise further, depending on the flexible options a pilot chooses.

Pilots will get more choices in how they work. The airline will offer a ‘25/9’ pattern, with 25 working days and 9 days of guaranteed time off in a month. It will also offer a ‘6-2-6-3’ pattern: 6 days of work, 2 days off, then 6 days of work and 3 days off. The airline says the new structure is meant to give pilots a better work-life balance.

Pilots will also remain eligible for loyalty rewards and the Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) announced earlier. These come over and above the revised pay.

Akasa Air currently has 45 Boeing 737 MAX planes and more than 800 pilots, PTI reported. Its main bases are Bengaluru and Mumbai, and it plans to open pilot bases at Cochin and Kolkata as it adds aircraft and routes. The airline started commercial operations in August 2022. It has a firm order for 226 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, according to the company.

This is not the first time Akasa Air has raised pilot pay. In 2023, it raised pilot salaries by up to 40 per cent, according to an earlier ET report, as airlines competed for experienced pilots.

The latest decisions come amid continuing discussions in the aviation sector about Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) and pilot fatigue. Under the revised FDTL norms from the aviation regulator DGCA, pilots must get 48 hours of weekly rest, up from 36, and night landings are limited. The changes mean airlines need more pilots to run the same schedule.