Akasa Air Pilot Row: Six-Month Notice Period Is Reasonable, Says CEO Vinay Dube

Akasa Air's litigation against 40 pilots who left the airline with 12-36 hours of notice will serve as a test case for a law that determines a six-month notice period for co-pilots and up to one year for captains.

The airline has taken some pilots to court, suing them for Rs 21 crore for damages—including damage to reputation—but the top management justified the action and said pilots provide an essential service.

"If a pilot calls you at ten (in) the night and says, 'Sorry, I am not coming tomorrow,' it is extremely disruptive. You leave passengers stranded," Vinay Dube, founder and chief executive officer at Akasa Air, told BQ Prime in an exclusive interview at their Mumbai headquarters.

Akasa Air contracts pilots with a six-month notice period. According to Dube, this is reasonable for a job that requires a long training period.

In terms of pilots who were brought on board without a notice period during the pandemic, Dube differentiated between employers who violated their contracts and themselves. He justified it by citing the 20% salary cuts handed down to those pilots during the pandemic by the airline employing them. 

Akasa Air was forced to curtail some operations due to the sudden pilot exits but plans to resume all operations by November. The airline has 450 pilots as of now and aims to have 600 soon.