Budget carrier SpiceJet has offered a 20 per cent salary hike to all its pilots with effect from October. This comes after a 6 per cent salary raise for line captains last month. Employees will also receive tax deducted at source (TDS) and a significant portion of provident fund contributions in the next 2-3 weeks, as per an internal mail accessed by India Today. This increment comes a day after it put scores of pilots on leave without pay for three months.
Captain Gurucharan Arora, SVP-Flight Operations at SpiceJet said in a mail, “Keeping with our commitment of increasing salaries in a calibrated manner as our business improves, the salary for the month of October will see an increase of around 20 per cent for our Captains and Senior First Officers.”
The mail further stated that the airline has received loan approval under the Centre’s ECLGS scheme, adding the first tranche of this loan has already been received. It also mentioned that the airline is looking to raise an additional $200 million.
The move comes days after SpiceJet asked 80 pilots to go on a non-paid leave of three months. The budget airline, however, said this move was temporary and aimed at rationalising costs. Pilots who have been placed on leave without pay are from SpiceJet’s Boeing and Bombardier fleets.
The airline said, “In a temporary measure to rationalise costs, SpiceJet has decided to place certain pilots on leave without pay for a period of three months. This measure, which is in line with SpiceJet’s policy of not retrenching any employee which the airline steadfastly followed even during the peak of the Covid pandemic, will help rationalise the pilot strength vis-a-vis the aircraft fleet.”
Besides this, aviation regulator DGCA also extended the 50 per cent cap on the airline’s operations till October 29 citing various safety incidents. Shares of SpiceJet are down 4.06 per cent to trade at 40.15 apiece on the BSE at the time of publishing this story.
Also read: SpiceJet puts scores of pilots on 3-month leave without pay to rationalise cost
Also read: SpiceJet shares slip 4% after airline sends pilots on unpaid leave