Competition Commission of India

Air India Limited v. InterGlobe Aviation Limited

10.02.2016

MRTP/ Competition Laws

Air India complains "predatory" poaching of pilots

The Competition Commission of India dismissed Air India’s complaint against Indigo’s (InterGlobe Aviation) act of poaching its trained pilots for having not raised competition concerns. The Commission was of the opinion that an airline recruiting another’s pilots would not bring about structural changes in the operations of the market, particularly since an airline recruiting a pilot had to obtain an NOC from the existing employer. Air India had expressed anguish over the expenditure it incurred for training pilots, and upkeep of their recency, for its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft, only to have them ‘predatorily’ recruited by Indigo. It claimed Indigo to have acquired a monopolistic 52 per cent market share in the non-metro to non-metro flight sector, having poached Air India pilots and saved itself of training costs.

Tags : Predatory recruitment anti-competitive training costs

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