New Delhi: Indian Airline Pilots Federation has demanded to identify them as frontline workers seeking all Covid – 19 related benefits to them.

The benefits include priority vaccination, insurance coverage, and compensation. The Federation of Indian Pilots filed a plea in the Bombay High Court, they urged in the plea to create a separate category Air Transportation Workers, under the frontline worker tag.

The 17 Air India pilots died due to Covid – 19 pandemic over the past year, 13 pilots died since February 2021 alone. The Indian Pilot Federation in a statement said that there is no scheme for adequate compensation to pilots in case of their demise.

There is no insurance or any other such scheme providing a safety net to pilots. Hence, by this petition filed in public interest, the petitioner seeks to agitate the cause of pilots who have rendered incessant national service for the past more than 14 months. The Federation has 5,619 members working for airlines such as Air India, Spicejet, IndiGo, Reliance Commercial, Go Air, Saudia, and Vistara.

The pilots now want the Government to define air insurance payable to those of them operating scheduled and non-scheduled Vande Bharat flights.