Summary
- Akasa Air is suing over 40 pilots for not fulfilling their six-month notice period before leaving, looking for over $2.5 million in damages.
- The airline has faced reputational damage and customer complaints on account of flight cancellations, resulting in a decrease in market share.
- Competition amongst Indian carriers for skilled pilots has intensified, with many pilots leaving Akasa to affix Air India Express, which, like Akasa, also operates a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft.
India’s low-cost airline Akasa Air is suing greater than 40 pilots for not fulfilling the mandatory six-month notice period before leaving the airline. Competition amongst Indian carriers for skilled cockpit crew has intensified in recent times, and a number of other of Akasa’s pilots are said to have joined Air India Express, which also operates the identical aircraft as Akasa – the Boeing 737.
Photo: Akasa Air
Akasa Air sues pilots for thousands and thousands
Akasa Air has approached the Bombay High Court against 43 pilots who left the airline recently without serving the mandatory six-month notice period. Based on the claim filed on the court, the airline is looking for greater than $2.5 million in damages, which also includes compensation for reputational loss, operational loss, rescheduling and cancelation of flights, and the cash spent on pilot training. The airline released a press release that said,
Compensation for reputational damage
Akasa Air received quite a few customer complaints within the last couple of months for canceling flights on short notice, affecting the travel plans of 1000’s of passengers. It needed to cancel around 15 flights within the states of Karnataka and Kerala alone in August and delay several others.
Photo: Akasa Air
Passengers took to social media to vent their anger and demanded refunds and compensation from Akasa, affecting its popularity amongst those that needed to search for costlier alternatives on account of the cancelations.
This also affected Akasa’s overall performance in August, as seen within the DGCA data for that month. The airline’s market share dipped to 4.2% in comparison with July’s 5.2%. All of this comes at a time when Akasa is gearing up for international operations, having achieved the mandatory requirement of a 20-aircraft fleet for overseas operations.
Competing for skilled pilots
It’s believed that the majority of the pilots who left Akasa have joined the Tata Group-owned low-cost international airline Air India Express. Each airlines operate a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft, enabling a better transition of the pilots from one carrier to the opposite. Each are also in expansion mode and can welcome several recent 737s in the approaching years.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
The demand for skilled pilots in India has intensified on account of travel resumption and fleet expansion of airlines comparable to IndiGo and Air India. The country’s carriers are offering attractive pay packages to lure pilots, with Akasa itself raising the salaries of its cockpit crew twice this yr alone.
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