Air India may give promotions to 100 pilots with pay hike of up to Rs 12 lakh: Report

Air India may give promotions to 100 pilots with pay hike of up to Rs 12 lakh: Report

Amidst the privatisation talks, it has been reported that the national carrier Air India might gove promotion to its 100 pilots with a pay hike of Rs 12 lakh per head.

"The 100 deputy general manager rank pilots are narrow-body and widebody pilots. These pilots are likely to be promoted to executive despite the fact that the airline is being privatised," a source told the Economic Times.

The news of promotions and hefty pay hike surfaced when the privatisation process of Air India is going on. But over the same, officials close to the developments told the newspaper that the pay hike is justified, since it was long due.

Officials said that the promotions had not been done since 8-10 years.

Officials said that the promotions had not been done since 8-10 years.

IndiGo in a statement clarified that there are no ongoing discussions of such nature.

"There have been some Press reports indicating that IndiGo is partnering with an airline from the Gulf to bid for Air India," IndiGo said.

"While IndiGo normally doesn't respond to rumours, in this particular instance, we would like to state that there are no ongoing discussions of this nature," it added.

Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that IndiGo and Qatar Airways were likely to make a joint bid for Air India.

IndiGo is owned by Interglobe Aviation Ltd, while Qatar Airways is owned by the Government of Qatar.

Heralding a new beginning in the people-to-people contact and diplomatic ties between India and Israel, the state-run Air India will introduce a direct thrice a week flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv from Thursday, with 50 per cent seats in the inaugural flight already booked.

The flight will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. While the inaugural flight will leave at 6.10 PM tomorrow, the scheduled departure will be 4.50 PM from March 25 when the summer schedule comes into operation.

"The response has been good so far and the inaugural flight has sold 50 per cent seats. The return flight has seen much better bookings with 80 per cent of the seats booked," said an Air India official.