Vistara to continue with pay cut till March; to hike allowance for pilots

Mumbai: Full-service carrier Vistara will continue with pay cuts of its staff till March but will do away with the three-day leave without pay for pilots effective from January 1.

For the pilots, the carrier will implement a 10 per cent salary cut while at the same time increase their monthly base flying allowance to 40 hours from 20 hours at present, a Vistara spokesperson said in a statement to PTI on Thursday.

Vistara, the joint venture of Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, on June 30 announced a reduction in salary of its nearly 40 per cent of the total workforce till December 31, to deal with the low cash flow amid a weak passenger demand in the wake of the pandemic.

For pilots, who were getting base flying allowance since April, which is a fixed component of the salary, for 70 hours per month, the allowance was reduced to 20 hours till December 31.

In September, the airline also introduced a three-day ‘Leave Without Pay’ for the pilots.

“The pay cut scheme at Vistara will continue to be in effect until March 31, 2021, as part of which the Vistara CEO will continue to take the maximum cut of 25 per cent in monthly pay,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the airline’s senior staff, including members of the management, will be affected by a cut of 15 per cent in monthly pay; while for those in mid-to-junior-mid levels, the cut will be 10 per cent.

“COVID-19 continues to have an industry-wide impact on business, despite improvement in the operating environment. While we currently deploy nearly 70 per cent of our pre-COVID-19 capacity, our operating revenue is still at a significant distance from normal levels,” the Vistara spokesperson said in the statement.