No Salary For SpiceJet Pilots For April, May: Report

In an e-mail verified by news agency PTI, SpiceJet has informed its pilots that they will not be receiving salaries for the month of April and May. For pilots who have been operating its cargo flights, payment will only be made for "block hours flown."

Block hours is the duration that a pilot operates the flight.

The PTI report quoted SpiceJet's flight operations chief informing its pilot over email that "as of today, 16 percent of our aircraft and 20 percent of our pilots are flying".

"We are doing this by flying our five cargo aircraft and also flying more 'cargo on seat' on our passenger aircraft," it added.

The budget carrier has a total of 116 passenger planes and five freight aircraft in its fleet. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended from 25 March to 3 May.

"We will not be getting any salary for April and May 2020. Those of us who have been flying cargo, will get paid for the block hours flown," the operations chief told his pilots over email as quoted by PTI.

"Over the coming weeks, we intend to increase the number of aircraft flying (cargo+cargo on seat) to more than 50 per cent and the number of pilots flying to 100 percent," it added.