Air India will soon have a new colour scheme and insignia that will decorate its aircraft along with new designs for cabin interiors and crew uniforms, CEO Campbell Wilson informed employees in an internal communication.
The CEO said that the work on the designs was “progressing well” and plans for their “reveals” were being finalised. In an interview recently, Mr. Wilson had indicated that while the iconic Maharajah may continue to be a part of the airline’s mascot, it could also include a “she”.
The airline will also announce new compensation packages for its cabin crew and pilots on Monday as well as a new rostering system, which Mr. Wilson said, would increase “transparency, fairness, equity, roster stability, protection of golden offs [five-day offs on birthday and wedding anniversary] and reduce fatigue.”
The airline has already announced plans to recruit 4,200 cabin crew and 900 pilots in 2023 — a shortage of whom has led to cancellation of six weekly flights to the U.S. for three months. There is also a worry that this crunch will widen as the airline starts inducting new aircraft from its recent order of 470 planes with Airbus and Boeing.
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While cuts introduced during COVID-19 were restored last September for most employees, pilots said they continued to see some cuts such as reduction of in the form of the minimum pay equivalent of 70 hours being reduced to 20 hours.
Many pilots also voiced concern that some were being removed from flying for training purposes for the newer kind of aircraft to be added to the airline’s fleet, and they were not being compensated for the loss of flying hours. There has also been simmering frustration across all airlines about rising levels of fatigue and frequent rescheduling of rostered duties.
Another issue that is expected to be addressed is one of seniority for pilots, which is a concern as different airlines such as Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India Express are now being merged under the larger Air India Group. One of the proposals by the management of preparing a master seniority list on “ratio basis” was rejected by some as Air India pilots contended that newer airlines such as Vistara and Air India Express had seen faster promotions and the formula proposed would give unfair advantage to their pilots.
