Lockdown woes: No April, May pay for SpiceJet pilots, barring aviators of cargo ops

Budget passenger carrier SpiceJet will not pay April and May salaries to its pilots, barring those who have been flying cargo flights.

In an email to the airline's pilots, Captain Gurcharan Arora, Chief of Flight Operations, said: "We will not be getting any salary for April and May 2020. Those of us who have been flying cargo, will get paid for the block hours flown."

"As the country shows a healthy and promising flattening of the 'covid curve', we are geared up and ready to appropriately increase our flights in harmony with the gradual lifting of flight restrictions by the government," he said.

Arora said that as of today, 16 per cent of the airline's aircraft and 20 per cent of its pilots are flying.

"We are doing this by flying our five cargo aircraft and also by flying more 'cargo on seat' on our passenger aircraft. Over the coming weeks, we intend to increase the number of aircraft flying (cargo + cargo on seat) to more than 50 per cent and the number of pilots flying to 100 per cent.

"Our rostering team will ensure that all of us get to fly these aircraft. So while the flying will be limited, we will ensure that all of us are current and our skills stay intact," he said.

Furthermore, Arora said that the company's management team is working to ensure that jobs are protected and "we are ready to ramp up our operations".