AI pilots willing to fly other aircraft

“The government is looking at ways to increase the aircraft utilisation on the domestic sector and we have told the government that we are willing to be shifted to other aircraft as well. Pilots are willing to undergo training and get the type certification for B-737,B-777,B-787,” said a source. One of the reasons for pilots going on strike was because the flying hours had been reduced which resulted in reduced salaries,unlike the erstwhile IA pilots who were paid a fixed salary for 80 hours of flying. Currently,because of reduced aircraft utilisation of the A-320 fleet,Air India has around 100 sets of pilots who are unutilised. “We have suggested to either increase the aircraft utilisation of A-320 or shift some pilots to other fleets,” said a pilot. The average aircraft utilisation per day on a domestic fleet for Air India is around nine hours,much less than the global average of around 13 hours. Some airlines such as Air Asia and Air Arabia have a aircraft utilisaton of around 19 hours a day.