Where do we get captains from?’ AI, IndiGo locked in dogfight for pilots amid FDTL fallout; joining bonus up to Rs 50 lakh

NEW DELHI: Call it the IndiGo schedule collapse and its fallout impact. A clamour has broken out between the budget airline and Air India group over having adequate captains to avoid a repeat of what happened under the new safety-enhancing flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules.

IndiGo has had to commit to DGCA about hiring pilots — it will induct 100 in Jan itself — and AI has already come out with an ad for getting more aviators on board. But both the airlines are also facing a significant number of captain resignations — with some leaving one for the other and mostly for joining foreign carriers — so the hiring is also to ensure they don’t go below their current numbers which has made the scramble more intense that anything seen before in Indian skies.