Air India issues retirees’ much-awaited new travel policy, HR News, ETHRWorld

MUMBAI: Air India on Wednesday issued a new policy document pertaining to the subsidized travel benefit granted to its retired employees. The new policy, the number of “passages’’ granted to retired employees has been cut down to a blanket four “passages’’ per year. Despite the reduction, the issuance of the policy brought much relief to the airline’s retired employees as it ended months of uncertainty over the status of this particular retirement benefit. With the airline privatised, there were concerns that the carrier might do away with this particular benefit.The Air India Retired Employees Leisure Travel policy will come into effect on March 1. The document states the next revision date is March 2025. Capt Manoj Hathi, retired Air India director (operations) said: “We are glad that Air India has given due weightage to the decades of our loyal service to the company.”

Under the said travel benefit, retired employee or his/her nominee gets a certain number of “passage”, or a free ticket. Free air ticket means the employee only pays for the tax component on the air ticket.

The travel is on a “subject-to-load” basis, the employees will be allowed to travel only if vacant seats are available at…