We have been going through this and other threads in detail about indigo and other airlines and fear of flying VT aircraft. All we can say is there are issues but not as they are being blown up. It is easy to blame the system and something needs to be done to clean it up. We believe things are happening and something good will hopefully come out of all this. We are a group of indigo FOs and know the insides of it and would like to highlight the problems that have come up.
Rostering is the major issue. It was supposed to be stable but it is anything but stable. With a rude and unresponsive staff and a corrupt guy at its helm there is little hope. We have regular issues with them and no one is able to resolve them. Flight operations expresses helplessness as it does not come under them though us guys who are pilots are supposed to be part of flight operations are controlled by rostering.
We are also leaving because of lack of increase in our salary. We were treated as second class citizens by the company and they gave salary increase to captains only as if we are not part of flying crew. So moment 330 came along a number of us are leaving. We were waiting for an opportunity to leave after the treatment that we get at this airline.
We are also very concerned about the negative changes that have taken place and how training and standards are being conducted. With the advent of guys from government airlines the debacle of indigo has started. These guys have brought a decadent culture to indigo. Wasnt destroying the government airline enough that they have come to indigo and started destroying it? It wont be long before indigo goes same way as kf which was their first target. The politics and bhaibhatija culture is in along with these guys. At least as long as pk was there standards were maintained. He was strict but fair. The guys who were trainers that time also followed same practices. Now it is all downhill.
This is india and with right contacts you can do anything. He is now been made a trainer after joining as line pilot in indigo!!! What will he teach us – how not to lower wheels when captain demands as we are not on talking terms with him? Then there is another guy in Chennai. Till pk was there, he was only a line check pilot as pk knew his capabilities. He has now been unleashed as TRE. He is such a creep that he was the only guy who was denied extension by icpa when he was leaving the govt airline!!! And now he will teach us how to be a nuisance in cockpit. We have also heard that two stalwarts in kolkatta are being upgraded to TREs. These two guys were useless as check pilots and as long as pk was there they were not even allowed to do training. Now they are being upgraded to TREs!!! Thank God we are leaving and till we leave we will not have to bear them. Whatever happened to the home grown guys of indigo? It is only chamchagiri that works.
Again where are the good guys and good trainers with whom we learnt flying and enjoyed it too. We hardly see them being upgraded. The training and standards are in the pits and going down by the day. No wonder we are having nose wheel landings and other problems. Recently these guys manoeuvered another lady captain and released her on us. We were hardly bearing the two who have been caught when this another one has been unleashed on us. All because she was good to the standards guy. He has now got his cronies children into indigo. For this he got the induction norms changed. Indigo has suddenly started taking type rated FOs but only from a particular category. You should be child of a government airline commander and should have done type rating from cte. The son-in-law of a indigoTRE has also got a back door entry. This guy tried through normal (CAE) route but was rejected. He has now paid money and got type rating at cte and has been taken and ahead of guys who studied hard and got through cae that time when he was rejected. It seems the standards guy has taken a substantial amount of money to get these guys in. IT PAYS TO HAVE CONTACTS AND MONEY. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. EVERYTHING ELSE CAN BE ARRANGED EVEN IN PRIVATE AIRLINES.
