Air India tells pilots, make onboard announcements in Hindi and earn rewards

New Delhi: State-run Air India plans to reward those pilots who make onboard announcements in Hindi, almost 10 months after the Central government came out with a circular on the use of official language in various public departments.

Most of the pilots currently make onboard announcements in English only.

"They should do so in Hindi as well, as it is our national language. We will encourage them to use Hindi in the cockpit while making onboard announcements," Air India sources said.

The issue had come up for discussions during a recent meeting of the civil aviation ministry and the airline management, sources said, adding that it was decided to reiterate the earlier instructions in this regard.

"Air India is one of the oldest organisations promoting Hindi in the country. So, the latest orders are nothing but a reiteration of the same," the sources said.

The aircraft operating staff has also been told to maintain the record of announcements made by the pilots along with other flight details, they said.

“Instead of coming with constructive ideas to make the company a financially viable airline, the top management is only interested in such gimmicks. This only shows how cut-off from reality they are,” a pilot told a national daily.

Immediately after coming to power last May, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government had stressed on the use of Hindi in public offices as well as in public life.

"I have taken a decision that we will give priority to the promotion of Hindi in all communications... because it is our official language," Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rejiju had said in June 2014.