NEW DELHI: Air India is doling out salary hikes and promotions to employees that some of its staff said would increase inefficiencies at the lossmaking national carrier at a time when the government is in the process of privatising it.The airline is set to promote about 100 pilots to executive ranks, which would mean a pay hike of up to Rs 12 lakh per head, said a source at Air India. While this will increase the salary bill, there will also be an impact on efficiency — executive pilots cannot fly planes as frequently as line pilots as they have office responsibilities as well. Employees in some other categories are also expected to get promotion.“The 100 deputy general manager rank pilots are narrow-body and widebody pilots. These pilots are likely to be promoted to executive despite the fact that the airline is being privatised,” said the source, who did not want to be identified. Air India’s total employee cost, including Alliance Air and Air India Express, was Rs 2,841.48 crore in FY17.Air India didn’t respond until press time to an email sent on Tuesday morning seeking comment. Officials, however, said that these promotions were due for a long time. “The officials in the operations department had not been promoted for the past 8 to 10 years, which is why it is being done,” said an Air India official, who did not want to be identified, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.The government is in the process of privatising the airline and is expected to invite expressions of interest soon. It is aiming to complete the process by the end of 2018. Air India, meanwhile, is also in the process of recruiting about 300 co-pilots for its fleet. Sources said the company is recruiting despite the fact that it has excess of pilots. “We have an excess of co-pilots and on an average they fly 40 hours a month and get paid fixed flying allowances for a block of 70 hours. In spite of this, AI has initiated the process to recruit another 270 pilots,” said a pilot.The government plans to sell the airline, together with its core aviation assets, low-cost subsidiary Air India Express and AI-SATS, a ground handling joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services, as one group. Alliance Air, which operates regional flights, and the ground handling and engineering subsidiaries will be sold separately. Air India has total debt of Rs 52,000 crore, of which about Rs 33,000 crore is working capital loans, which will be transferred to a special purpose vehicle, ET reported on October 2, 2017.