Air India re-hiring retired pilots

Air India has recently sent job offer letters to around 55 pilots who retired in the past four years as the airline plans to re-hire them as commanders to fly for another five years or till they reach the age of 65, whichever happens first. Airline sources said the letters went out this week and 49 of the 55 pilots who received these post-retirement contract offers have already expressed their willingness to rejoin the carrier.
 
On June 15, the airline also sent letters to about 50 senior pilots seeking their acceptance for conversion training on A350 aircraft.
 
The private carrier plans to add 200 aircraft to its fleet in the next four to five years, with a majority of these being narrow body aircraft - single-aisle planes that operate domestic routes or short and medium haul international routes. Meanwhile, the wide-body, long-range A350 aircraft is set to join its fleet early next year.
 
Pilots are the highest paid employees of an airline. At the time of retirement, these Air India commanders would have drawn a monthly salary of around Rs 750,000, and the examiners about Rs 850,000. The airline will re-induct them at a slightly lower salary, say about Rs 650,000-700,000 per month. Since these pilots haven’t flown in months or years, their licences won’t be current and their medicals would have lapsed. So, the airline would need to spend on their training and licensing before they can be back in the cockpit.