IndiGo airlines are again in trouble for the second time this week, as airline staff for aircraft maintenance has now taken unpaid leave in major centres. Several media reported that numerous aircraft maintenance technicians working under Indigo took unpaid leaves in protest against the low hike given by tpost-COVID-19st COVID-19 crisis.
Several important flying centres across the country, such as Delhi and Hyderabad, are facing shortages in AMTs.
Sources said to the media that technicians did not report for their night shifts at Hyderabad on July 8th. IndiGo airlines said that they are closely monitoring the situation, and will take necessary steps to avoid delays or disruptions in flight schedules.
Cabin Crew takes mass sick leaves
This is not the first time IndiGo faced heat from the employees. Last Saturday, a large number of the in-flight crew of IndiGo airlines took sick leaves around the country, which caused major flight delays.
Nearly 900 IndiGo flights got delayed and rescheduled. That is almost 55% of the 1,600 flights operated by IndiGo in a single day.
Various online discussions and media reports connected the mass sick leaves to ongoing interviews conducted by Air India. According to them, most of the cabin crew, who took sick leaves, went to attend the job interviews conducted by Tata-owned Air India airlines.
Air India officials later denied all the reports, connecting air India interviews with the staff at IndiGo. The company said that they conducted interviews on Thursday and Friday in Mumbai, and it has got nothing to do with the mass leaves of the indigo crew on Saturday.
Other reports regarding the incident suggest that the crew took the leaves as a protest against the management regarding salary hike after slashing salary during COVID-19 crisis.
Indigo had earlier cut the salaries of crew and workers by nearly 28% during the pandemic-related economic crisis. Even though company hiked salaries two times after pandemic period, it resulted in only an 8% hike. This means the actual salaries of indigo employees are still low by about 16% compared to pre-pandemic salary scales.
Even though various allowances for pilots and crew have been reinstated by the airline company, the majority of employees want a salary hike.
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (Parent company of IndiGo) was founded 17 years ago as a private company by Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal. With a fleet of 277 aircraft, controlling nearly 54% of the entire Indian airline market, Indigo is the largest airline in the country and the fourth-largest air carrier in the Asian continent.