New Delhi/Mumbai, Nov 17 (IANS) The National Aviation Co of India Ltd (NACIL) that runs national carrier Air India Tuesday decided to continue with the present performance linked incentives (PLI) as passenger load has picked up.
“In view of the improved passenger carriage in recent months, we are trying to address the issues concerning the delayed payments of the PLI to our employees,” NACIL said in a statement.

“While the delay (in clearing dues) ranged from one to two months, efforts are on to the clear the October PLI soon and in future the delay would not be more than a month,” it said.

The airline, which posted a loss of Rs.7,200 crore last fiscal, paid salaries for October but without incentives, which constitute a major chunk of the pay packages of its 31,500 employees.

A PLI cut would have hit the carrier’s 1,250 pilots and 7,000 engineers the most, with incentives accounting for about 75 percent of pilots’ salaries.

Just before the NACIL board began its deliberations Tuesday, pilots staged a silent protest march at Mumbai airport.

Earlier in the day, a senior airline official told IANS that the company would look at adjusting cuts in PLI acceptable to all.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), which claims to have a membership of over 800, had also threatened to go on strike from Nov 24 if the dues were not cleared.

The cash-strapped carrier is currently focusing on increasing revenues and market share.

Its domestic market share, which was 16.6 percent in August, rose to 17.5 percent in September and climbed to 18.6 percent last month.

In a revenue shoring move, it also hiked domestic fares by up to Rs.200 following increase in jet fuel prices.

The government has asked the carrier to reduce costs by at least Rs.2,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal. The airline has posted a loss of over Rs.5,500 crore till now this fiscal.