Air India gives salary increments to staff; announces target performance bonus for pilots

Air India on Thursday, 23 May, announced annual salary increments for its staff, and also introduced an annual target performance bonus for pilots, according to sources.

This is the first appraisal process after the Tata Group took over the loss-making airline a little over two years ago.

On Thursday, Air India CHRO Ravindra Kumar GP announced salary increments with effect from 1 April 2024, as well as performance bonus payouts for FY 2023–24 based on company and individual performance reports, sources said.

They also said that Air India, which is in the process of revamping itself under a five-year transformation plan, is providing competitive salary increments to attract and retain talent as part of larger efforts to have a performance-driven and meritocratic culture among the employees.

Air India currently has around 18,000 employees.

The airline has rolled out annual appraisals for all employees who joined before 31 December 2023, including ground staff, cabin crew and pilots. The appraisals are based on a new performance management system, Rise.AI.

The range of overall increment could not be immediately ascertained.

This is the first appraisal of Air India staff after the takeover by the Tata Group in January 2022. Last year, only compensation and contract restructuring for legacy employees were done, the sources said.

In addition to the increase in fixed pay for FY 2023–24, the sources said the airline has introduced a component of annual target performance bonus for its pilots (again based on company and individual performance), which will be applicable from FY2024–25.

While announcing the appraisals, CHRO Kumar said that in the last financial year, the airline had achieved key milestones in laying strong foundations for growth and transformation.

As part of the Vihaan.AI journey, the airline introduced the contemporary annual performance appraisal process, Rise.AI, and also transitioned to a simplified, market-competitive and productivity-oriented compensation structure for employees, he added.

Air India announced the five-year transformation plan Vihaan.AI in late 2022.

The Air India group has four airlines — Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) and Vistara. Air India Express is merging AIX Connect with itself, and Vistara will be merging with Air India.