The civil aviation ministry wants Air India to increase fleet utilisation.
The move would cap the discontent among pilots at not having enough flying hours and even help the state carrier gain grounds in terms of passenger carriage.
"Air India needs to increase its fleet utilisation so that the pilots get to log more flying hours. There are various requests pending with the airline and they should start flights to those sectors," said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.
The official said even the low-cost carrier IndiGo's aircraft utilisation is over 12 hours. "There is enormous scope for Air India to increase its fleet utilisation and the planes they have should fly more," he said.
Air India's aircraft utilisation is nine hours. If the airline increases its fleet's utilisation by three hours per aircraft, it will give the airline around 400 extra flying hours to be distributed among 1,500 pilots.
Recently, around 800 pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines went on a 10-day strike after demanding an increase in their salaries, which had been impacted because of the fall in flying hours.
The Indian Airlines pilots are paid on the basis of flying hours whereas the erstwhile Air India pilots get fixed pay only to exceed if the pilots fly over 80
The pilots alleged their flying hours have fallen to less than 60 hours a month from 80 hours a month earlier. They met officials in the civil aviation ministry with their demands.
The airline is also losing market share rapidly and has become the fourth largest carrier in terms of passenger carriage, losing its third place to IndiGo.
Management meets cabin crew demands
The Air India management has met various long-standing demands of the cabin crew, especially those related to timely promotion, the All India Cabin Crew Association said on Tuesday.
"The association met executive director for operations & customer services," said a AICCA release. The AICCA's demands were part of the 2008 merger agreement.
"The AICCA stressed on the need to urgently resolve the issue of time-bound promotions of 2010 and 2011 before implementing the recommendations of the Dharmadhikari Committee.
