Pilots' grouping ALPA India has flagged concerns about attrition of experienced pilots from Air India and Air India Express, emphasising that they are not entries on a manpower spreadsheet but repositories of operational judgment and institutional memory.The Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA India), in a letter to Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata, suggested commissioning an independent review across the Air India Group that covers pilot attrition, remuneration and benefits, roster practices, fatigue data, earned-leave fairness and utilisation and various other factors.Air India Group, comprising loss-making Air India and Air India Express, have more than 5,000 pilots."We are increasingly concerned by the attrition of experienced pilots across the Air India Group, particularly at Air India Express. Remuneration that has not kept pace with expectations, the reduction of benefits, and deteriorating quality-of-life and working conditions are together driving experienced commanders and senior pilots out of the organisation," ALPA India said in the letter dated August 31.Besides, the grouping has mentioned the pace of pilot movement between Airbus and Boeing fleets, saying such transitions are entirely legitimate when properly trained and regulated but moving pilots between fundamentally different aircraft philosophies demands robust training, adequate consolidation periods, and careful management of the cockpit experience gradient."We are not confident this is being managed with the rigour it requires," the letter said.ALPA India cited three incidents this year, including an Air India Express Boeing 737-8 MAX from Hyderabad making a hard landing at Phuket that resulted in nose-landing-gear damage to the aircraft in March. The two other incidents were Air India's A321 plane from Delhi suffering a tail strike during a go-around at Bengaluru airport in May and a "reported in-flight control event" involving Air India's Phuket-Delhi flight last month, as per the letter.While highlighting these incidents, ALPA India also said it does not seek to prejudge these occurrences nor to attribute them to pilot experience ahead of formal findings."But a concentration of significant operational events of this nature should prompt deeper scrutiny of whether the Group's Safety Management System (SMS), Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programme, training systems and manpower policies are adequately identifying the risks that attrition, cockpit experience gradients, fleet transitions and diminishing command experience can create.”"An effective SMS must be predictive and preventive, not merely reactive after an occurrence. FOQA data should allow management to identify trends- unstable approaches, hard landings, excessive pitch attitudes, go-arounds, high-energy events- before they culminate in serious incidents or accidents," the letter said.ALPA India emphasised that experienced pilots are not entries on a manpower spreadsheet. They are repositories of operational judgment and institutional memory, and they represent one of an airline's most valuable safety assets.Air India Group is owned by Tata and Singapore Airlines.N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons and Air India, in August, announced that he would step down as Tata Sons Chairman when his current term ends in February 2027.Published on September 1, 2026