But what has also become a cause of concern among many trainee pilots and co-pilots is the recovery of substantial amounts of money that they spent on clocking flying hours in order to obtain a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) to help them kick-start their aviation careers. “The per-hour cost of flying in India comes to about Rs 3,500 and you need a minimum of 250 flying hours to be get a CPL which comes to about Rs 9 lakh. But most students prefer to get their training from countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States where you end up paying an average of 25 to 35 thousand dollars on your training to get a CPL,” said a trainee pilot with Kingfisher, who spent $28,000 in his training from the US. Still, according to him, he will accept the pay cut as long as his job is secure with the airline.

“I won’t mind if they cut my salary as well as the luxury provided to us in terms of 5-star hotel accommodation, but I should have my job with me,” said another Kingfisher trainee pilot who took a loan to meet CPL training costs from New Zealand. “Let us see what happens,” is all he said when asked if he will face problems in repaying the loan amount. “It’s better to have jobs with salary cuts because as and when the scenario improves, we’ll get the usual salaries back,” said another trainee pilot.

Senior pilots, on the other hand, say that while pay cuts are a norm in turbulent times, the airline must take pilots into confidence before announcing such measures. “Pay cuts are a normal worldwide culture among airlines as long as the jobs are secured. But in India I don’t know why they’re not taking the pilots into confidence on such a critical issue,” said a senior Kingfisher pilot, citing Singapore Airlines’ example that cut pilots’ salaries during the SARS epidemic when travel to South Asia had hit rock bottom.

Sources also confirmed to The Indian Express that further salary cuts were in the pipeline for both Jet and Kingfisher employees. While a spokesperson for the Bangalore-based Kingfisher refused to comment on the issue, a senior Jet official said the company is still recovering from last week’s media bash. “Meetings on these issues will only take place next week,” he said.