{"id":145013,"date":"2023-10-31T12:30:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T12:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/?p=145013"},"modified":"2023-10-31T21:44:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T21:44:59","slug":"chief-executives-of-air-india-akasa-air-joust-over-poaching-of-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2023\/10\/chief-executives-of-air-india-akasa-air-joust-over-poaching-of-pilots.html","title":{"rendered":"Chief executives of Air India, Akasa Air joust over poaching of pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chief executives of Air India and Akasa Air<\/strong> have privately exchanged barbs over the poaching of pilots, with the latter accusing its bigger rival of rule violations, provoking a reply that collusion to curb job switching can breach competition law.<\/p>\n

The exchange, detailed in a Sept. 21 letter seen by Reuters<\/a>, spotlights growing competition in India\u2019s aviation market, as a strong rebound in air travel after the pandemic, coupled with a flurry of orders for new aircraft, lead to a shortage of pilots.<\/p>\n

The rare verbal and written confrontations between the airlines\u2019 chief executives were detailed in the letter, sent by Campbell Wilson of Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group conglomerate, to Vinay Dube of low-cost airline Akasa.<\/p>\n

It followed a telephone call between them and a missive Dube had sent expressing his concerns to the Tata Group.<\/p>\n

The Sept. 21 letter shows Air India pushed back after Akasa accused it of contravening government policies that mandate a notice period of six to 12 months for pilots, rules that Indian pilots\u2019 groups are challenging in court.<\/p>\n

Wilson told his counterpart the government rules were \u201cnot currently enforceable\u201d, adding that Akasa itself had \u201cpreviously engaged in the same actions\u201d by poaching pilots from Tata Group\u2019s budget carrier, Air India Express, and other airlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little surprising to us that Akasa now found the practice objectionable,\u201d Wilson wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n

\u2192 India proposes barring pilots and flight attendants from using perfume<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Akasa did not comment on its communication with Air India, but said the issue of pilot exits was \u201cnow behind us … we are squarely back in growth mode\u201d.<\/p>\n

The dispute comes at the time of a hiring spree by Air India, with its arm, Air India Express, seeking to more than triple its fleet to 170 over five years.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Akasa has lost about a tenth of its 450 pilots, who left without serving out notice periods, some to join Air India Express.<\/p>\n

In September, Akasa said it feared a shutdown and sued some pilots, as well as the aviation watchdog, for not coming to its aid, in lawsuits still pending in the courts.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Wilson added that he had \u201ccautioned\u201d Dube during their telephone call that asking a competitor to collude in curbing employees\u2019 rights to switch employers \u201ccould be construed as potentially a contravention of competition law\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI regret that you interpreted my courtesy of taking your call and listening to your request as assent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Federation of Indian Pilots has described the alleged mass resignations from Akasa as an \u201cindication\u201d of employee discontent, while India\u2019s aviation watchdog has said it cannot interfere in matters related to employment contracts.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s newest airline, Akasa started flying in 2022, garnering a market share of 4%. It competes with IndiGo, which commands a share of 60% and Tata Group\u2019s airlines that together have a share of 25.7%.<\/p>\n

In the Sept. 21 letter, Air India\u2019s Wilson expressed the hope that Akasa would make investments to \u201cattract, retain and develop\u201d its own staff, adding that his airline looked forward to \u201ccontinuing healthy competition\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief executives of Air India and Akasa Air have privately exchanged barbs over the poaching of pilots,…\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":144992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[603,600,264,230,197,809,465,204],"class_list":{"0":"post-145013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-airlines","8":"tag-aerolinea-en-2","9":"tag-aerolineas-en-2","10":"tag-air-india","11":"tag-airline","12":"tag-airlines","13":"tag-akasa-air-2","14":"tag-asia-2","15":"tag-pilots"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-768x384.jpg",768,384,true],"large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"pk-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",80,40,false],"pk-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",300,150,false],"csco-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"csco-intermediate":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"csco-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-380x220.jpg",380,220,true],"csco-thumbnail-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"csco-thumbnail-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-380x190.jpg",380,190,true],"csco-medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-medium-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air-560x336.jpg",560,336,true],"csco-medium-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-extra-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Air-India-Akasa-Air.jpg",800,400,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Redacci\u00f3n - Aviaci\u00f3n al D\u00eda","author_link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/author\/aad"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The chief executives of Air India and Akasa Air have privately exchanged barbs over the poaching of pilots,…","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145014,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145013\/revisions\/145014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}