Many Vietnam Airlines pilots quit their jobs

At Vietnam Airlines, the average salary of Vietnamese pilots is only 59% of that of foreign pilots. Photo: VNA.

Recently, Mr. Dang Ngoc Hoa - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines Corporation - sent a written comment to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on the consultation of the draft Submission and Decree supplementing Decree No. 87/2021/ND-CP.

Accordingly, Vietnam Airlines leaders said that Decree 20/2020 stipulates that when determining the unit price of fixed salary in 2020, Vietnam Airlines is allowed to calculate the difference in salary of Vietnamese pilots that the company pays lower than that of foreign pilots.

However, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam Airlines did not satisfy the profit requirement to be eligible for the additional salary difference between Vietnamese and foreign pilots. Therefore, there was a large difference in salary between these two groups of pilots of Vietnam Airlines (same title, same flight crew, same tasks) and with pilots of domestic airlines.

The above issue has led to the number of Vietnamese pilots terminating their labor contracts with Vietnam Airlines in the period 2018-2022 reaching 154. By the end of the first quarter of this year, 8 more Vietnamese pilots had applied to terminate their labor contracts with Vietnam Airlines.

As the aviation market recovers post-Covid-19, this number will continue to increase if Vietnam Airlines does not take proactive steps to retain workers.

Vietnam Airlines leaders emphasized that pilots resigning and transferring to other operators, especially during the post-Covid-19 recovery period, seriously threatens the airline's fleet development plan. Because the Vietnamese pilots who resign are mainly instructor pilots and chief pilots with many years of experience.

To ensure the retention and attraction of Vietnamese pilots, contributing to the stabilization of Vietnam Airlines' production and business activities, Mr. Dang Ngoc Hoa affirmed that the establishment of a mechanism to compensate for the salary difference between Vietnamese and foreign pilots flying for Vietnam Airlines is urgent.

According to Vietnam Airlines' report, the total number of employees working for the airline in 2022 is 6,028 people. This includes 4,417 people paid by the airline from the salary fund according to the unit price (including 829 Vietnamese pilots; 3,581 flight attendants and indirect workers) and 152 foreign pilots signed contracts with human resource supply partners (Vietnam Airlines does not pay salaries directly).

The average salary of Vietnamese pilots is 85 million VND/month/person, only 59% compared to foreign pilots, about 145 million/month/person.

In 2019, the salary of Vietnamese pilots was 135.4 million VND/month/person, equal to 48% of the salary of foreign pilots which was 281.68 million VND/month.

The airline has now restored its entire domestic flight network compared to before the pandemic and resumed 90% of its international routes. In the first quarter of the year, Vietnam Airlines transported 5.1 million passengers, up 63% year-on-year. Of which, international passengers reached 1.4 million, 11.5 times higher than the same period last year and equivalent to 60.9% of 2019. Domestic passenger volume increased by over 23%, to 3.7 million.

In the first quarter, Vietnam Airlines recorded revenue of VND 23,640 billion, double the same period in 2022.

Notably, this is the airline's highest revenue since the first quarter of 2020 (when the Covid-19 pandemic began). The above revenue level is also close to the results the airline recorded in the business quarters of 2019 - the period before the pandemic.

Thanks to the sharp increase in revenue, Vietnam Airlines recorded a gross profit of VND 1,959 billion, while in the same period in 2022, it had a gross loss of nearly VND 1,600 billion. Similar to the revenue target, this is also the most positive gross profit that the national airline has recorded since 2020.

According to Zing

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