NEW DELHI: One of the country’s newest airlines, Akasa Air, told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that it would have to cancel 600-700 flights in September following the resignation of 43 pilots without serving notice period.
The airline told the court there is a state of crisis as they have cancelled 24 flights per day so far in September due to the abrupt resignations. The 13-month-old airline has taken legal route to take penal action against the pilots. It is also seeking about `22 crore as compensation from them for loss of revenue owing to groundings and cancellation of flights.
The airline is facing a large number of complaints from flyers, impacting its reputation. Akasa earlier said to have accused the Air India Express of poaching their pilots. It is also confirmed by some of the former Akasa pilots that most of them have preferred Air India Express given they have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleet.
“It is a big setback for Akasa as it is relatively difficult to find Boeing 737 pilots in India than Airbus A320 pilots. If Akasa is unable to arrange manpower for its aircraft, it will incur huge losses and this would impact its expansion plans. It is important for the airline to hold its remaining pilots as they have some grievance s against the airline regarding changes in compensation,” said an aviation analyst requesting anonymity.
Some Akasa pilots who have quit said the airline violated contracts by altering salary structure. The sudden exodus is having a severe impact on the operations of Akasa, which recently inducted its 20th aircraft and became eligible to fly in international routes.