IndiGo faces trouble in Hyderabad, technicians on leave | Hyderabad News

HYDERABAD: After pilots and crew, IndiGo faces unhappy aircraft technicians who have taken mass leave at Hyderabad and Delhi to protest against alleged poor hikes.
After pilots and cabin crew, IndiGo is now facing trouble from its aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs) at some stations.
A significant number of technicians have taken mass leave at major hubs like Hyderabad and Delhi to protest over alleged poor pay increments.
Comments were sought from IndiGo and are still awaited at the time this report was filed.
“Some technicians did not report for night shift at Hyderabad on July 8. The airline is monitoring the situation at Hyderabad and Delhi closely. It says adequate measures have been put in place and, that, so far, there are no delays or disruptions in flight schedules due to technician trouble,” sources said.
A mail written by IndiGo AMTs to the airline management has protested over the difference in pay between them and the aircraft maintenance engineers (AME).
AMTs are “highly qualified technical staff who have undergone a specialized AME course and, after completion, allowing them to work on aircraft maintenance… Most AMTs are paid between 20,000 and 30,000… Trainee AMTs are contracted for 12 months for 8,000 (per month) as cheap labour…. Request you to intervene and address (this) issue”, the letter said.
The airline is in the midst of a major management rejig with top brass, including CEO, Ronojoy Dutta, and chief commercial officer, Willy Boulter, on their way out.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines president and CEO, Pieter Elbers, will take over as the next CEO to oversee IndiGo’s expansion in international skies. This transition period is proving to be a tough one for India’s largest airline by passenger carriage.
In the last few months, crew discontent has been brewing at IndiGo – India’s only profitable airline before the pandemic struck – over continued pandemic-time pay cuts. It started with pilots planning mass leaves and IndiGo suspending some of them this April for violating “terms of employment and company’s code of conduct”.
On July 2, 55% of IndiGo flights were delayed and a few even cancelled, after a large number of its cabin crew went to walk-in interviews conducted by Tata Group’s Air India. While IndiGo described this as a “one off” issue to the DGCA, the regulator directed the airline to compensate passengers of delayed flights as per rules (where the delay was sufficient enough to trigger fine payment).