New Delhi Fifty per cent of IndiGo’s domestic flights were delayed on Saturday as a significant number of cabin crew members took sick leave, industry sources said as they went for an Air India recruitment drive.
When asked about this, aviation regulator DGCA chief Arun Kumar said on Sunday, “We are looking into it.” Phase-2 of Air India’s recruitment drive was conducted on Saturday and most of IndiGo’s cabin crew members went on sick leave for it, industry sources said.
IndiGo, India’s largest airline, currently operates around 1,600 flights – domestic and international – daily. IndiGo and Air India did not respond to PTI’s requests for a statement on the matter.
According to the website of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, 45.2% of IndiGo’s domestic flights operated on time on Saturday.
In comparison, on-time performance of Air India, SpiceJet, Vistara, GoFirst and AirAsia India stood at 77.1%, 80.4%, 86.3%, 88% and 92.3% respectively on Saturday. IndiGo CEO Ronjoy Dutta had told employees on April 8 through an email that raising wages is a difficult and difficult issue, but the airline will continuously review and adjust salaries based on its profitability and competitive environment. IndiGo on April 4 suspended some pilots who were planning to go on strike on Tuesday to protest the pay cut implemented during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. After successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year, the Tata group took over control of Air India on January 27. Air India plans to buy new aircraft and improve its services, and it recently launched a recruitment drive for new cabin crew members. During the peak of the pandemic, IndiGo had cut the salaries of its pilots by up to 30%.
On April 1 this year, the airline announced its decision to increase the salaries of pilots by 8%. It added that in case of no disruption, another hike of 6.5% would be implemented from November. However, a section of the pilots remained dissatisfied and decided to organize a strike.