The foreign pilots who are serving Air India (AI) are not ready to accept a 10 percent cut in the salary. They may be agreeing to a minimal salary cut at the most. This message has been conveyed at meeting of Air India officials with pilots’ recruitment agencies like Sigmar Aviation Recrutiment and Rishworth Aviation held on Wednesday in Mumbai.

“First of all we do not want any cut. But, considering AI’s crisis, if they propose any reduction it has to be minimal and not to the extent of 10 per cent in salary alone,” a recruitment agency official, who did not want to be named, told Financial Chronicle.

Air India intends to make a reduction of 10 percent in foreign pilots’ salary. The carrier has proposed to reduce nearly half the bonus to $ 6,000 from $12,000 - $15,000 paid annually. The carrier is not willing to repay travel expenses of the foreign pilots which is about $3,000 per year.

The official, who was also part of negotiations said, “The total reduction is about 16-18 per cent in the overall salary which is quite steep. The pilots would not accept this much cut. As an agency, we would like to retain more pilots for AI. For that to happen, the cut needs to be much lower.”

On Thursday there will be another round of meeting between AI and other recruitment agencies including EDL. About 250 pilots are operating flights on international routes for Air India, Alliance Air and Air India Express.