According to a new ToI report, Air India Express (AIX) pilots are miffed at Air India Group's recent move to recruit Airbus A320 pilots from IndiGo amid the recent aviation crisis.
Air India Group recently put out a call for experienced A320 pilots, and many have pointed out that it was a deliberate effort to poach IndiGo captains, given the timing, the report noted.
More than anyone, the pushback came from within the group itself, ToI stated, with at least 100 A320 Air India Express pilots formally writing to the management in protest of the recruitment drive.
Currently, AIX operates 34 A320 aircraft, along with 76 Boeing 737s. The report noted that 10 of them were to be returned to lessors in early 2026. Despite AIX looking to induct more A320 in the near future, pilots fear that they would not be able to get the relevant flying hours as stipulated in their contracts.
The report further stated that AIX pilots were questioned the recruitment given that they were told that the airline had an excess of A320 pilots.
"We have consistently been informed that the group is surplus on A320 captains, which has been the basis for maintaining the 40-hour contract," Toi reported, citing letters to the management, with the pilots demanding to "clarify the rationale for initiating external recruitment now."
This news came at a challenging time for IndiGo, which operates the largest fleet of A320 in the country.
DGCA grills IndiGo CEO for two days
On Friday, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers appeared before the DGCA panel probing the operational disruptions. This also came a day after IndiGo announced additional compensation in the form of Rs 10,000 travel vouchers over and above the government-mandated reprieve.
As per the revised cut-down schedule, IndiGo operates a little over 2,000 flights on Friday. The DGCA also directed India's biggest domestic player to trim its winter schedule flights by 10 per cent.
Even as IndiGo went under intense regulatory grilling from DGCA and even CCI, airfares across multiple connection points in the country spiked, leading to Indian Railways announcing new special trains in certain sectors.
