AI Dreamliner pilots asked to sign bonds to ground exodus

In its bid to stem the exodus of the pilots of its Dreamliner fleet, Air India has asked them to sign a bond which would allow it to recover the training cost in case a pilot decides to quit the airline without serving it for at least five years. Air India spends a whopping Rs25-60 lakh on the training of each pilot who flies a Boeing 787-8 aircraft. “We have asked these pilots, who have been trained by the airline at a huge cost to fly these planes, to sign the bond so that, when they leave, we can recover the training costs, which runs to between Rs 25-60 lakh per pilot,” a senior official said. The move comes in the wake of eight of AI’s Dreamliner pilots leaving the airline to join other carriers without serving the mandatory six-month notice period. “We want to pre-empt any such move by the trained pilots in future,” the official said, adding, “We had sent the bond documents to the said pilots, but they refused to sign the same.”