Senior Kingfisher pilots forced to fly 'junior' aircraft

END OF GOOD TIMES: After Kingfisher cancelled their A340 order, the pilots have no planes to fly.

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New Delhi: Days after trainee pilots at Kingfisher Airlines were forced to accept a pay cut, it's the turn of senior pilots, some whom spent over Rs 15 lakh out of their pocket to in training to fly the larger Airbus A340, which the airline was planning to buy.

But after Kingfisher cancelled their A340 order, the pilots have no planes to fly.

They are now being forced to fly the smaller A320 and accept a 20 per cent pay cut.

Their families are not taking too kindly to it

“We feel mistreated. We cant trust them anymore,” said wife of a Kingfisher pilot on conditions of anonymity.

Airlines say they have no choice. High crude prices along with the taxes has made Aviation Turbine fuel over 60 per cent higher than in other countries.

Fares have increased and passengers traffic has dropped drastically between July and September. Passenger growth has dropped by 25 per cent.

Airlines have reduced capacity by over 30% and even cancelled their aircraft orders

“We had a discussion. We wouldn’t say we have cancelled the order, we have another buyer who needed A340s urgently. So we had a discussion with Dr (Vijay) Mallaya and bearing in mind the drop in travel in US and high fuel prices we came to a conclusion that it's better they don’t take those aircraft,” says Kiran Rao of Kingfisher.

Kingfisher has offered to pay for re-training the pilots to fly smaller aircraft but also wants them to sign a five-year bond tying them to the airline, something they are unwilling to do.