Air India has suspended the contracts of 200 pilots.
The veteran pilots were only recently re-employed after coming out of retirement to cover a shortage of qualified pilots at the flag carrier.
Air India and every other passenger airline in the country are in the midst of a three-week grounding with India under lockdown.
"Since almost all the planes have been grounded and the carrier’s revenues have taken a significant fall during the last few weeks, the airline has decided to temporarily suspend the contract of around 200 pilots who were re-employed after their retirement," an airline official said.
Air India has already taken various cost cutting measures including reducing allowances of all employees, except for cabin crew, for the next three months.
The Indian government is still hopeful the debt-ridden national airline can be sold as a going concern but the in current environment that continues to be highly unlikely.
