IndiGo has hiked allowances for pilots by up to Rs 2,000 with effect from January 1. IndiGo has introduced new cockpit crew allowances and revised certain
existing allowances. The decision comes weeks after the country’s largest airline faced severe flight disruptions due to pilot rostering challenges. However, sources told Times Now that the allowance hike is not linked to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms. The hikes will be for various allowance categories, including domestic layover, deadhead and night. Also, pilots will be eligible for tail-swap allowance. The allowances hike comes against the backdrop of new norms necessitating the deployment of more pilots for night operations. Also Read -1,000+ Flights Cancelled, Over 2.5 Lakh Flyers Stranded – How IndiGo’s Worst-Ever Crisis Unfolded Domestic Layover Allowance - Domestic layover allowances have been increased to ₹3,000 for captains and ₹1,500 for first officers. A captain, who was earlier paid Rs 2,000 as domestic layover allowance for a 10.01-24-hour duration layover, will now get Rs 3,000. In the case of a first officer, the allowance for the same time frame will rise to Rs 1,500 from Rs 1,000 earlier. For every hour beyond the 24-hour time frame, a captain will get Rs 150 from Rs 100 earlier, while the first officer will be paid Rs 75 instead of Rs 50 earlier. Night Allowance - The airline has also introduced fixed night allowances of ₹2,000 per night hour for captains and ₹1,000 for first officers, replacing the earlier multiplier-based system. Deadhead Allowance - The Deadhead allowance per scheduled block hour has been raised to ₹4,000 for captains and ₹2,000 for first officers. Deadhead allowance is compensation paid to pilots when they travel as passengers on a flight to reach a work location or return home. Such pilots are required to operate flights from other destinations. Tail Swap Allowance - A new tail-swap allowance has been added, offering ₹1,500 per swap for captains and ₹750 for first officers. Generally, tail-swap refers to replacing a scheduled aircraft with a different aircraft. Domestic transit allowances have been restructured to an hourly model, paying ₹1,000 per hour for captains and ₹500 per hour for first officers for halts beyond 90 minutes. Furthermore, the meal allowance during transit has been hiked to Rs 1,000 from Rs 500 for captains. IndiGo suffered massive disruptions earlier this month, leading to aviation safety watchdog DGCA directing the airline to cut its winter schedule by 10 per cent. The disruptions were attributed to a lack of adequate planning in implementing the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations norms, which permit a lesser number of night landings for a pilot.
