Flying Allowance

Flying Allowance is the risk allowance for military aircrew, placed in cell R1H1 of the 7th CPC Risk and Hardship matrix at Rs. 25,000/17,300.

Updated 19 July 2026 · Reviewed by Salary-Calculator.in

The Flying Allowance is a risk and hardship allowance paid to aircrew, the pilots, navigators and flight crew of the armed forces and the Coast Guard, for the risk and the demand of flying duty. Under the 7th Central Pay Commission it is placed in cell R1H1, the highest grid cell of the Risk and Hardship matrix , and it is a flat monthly amount by pay band: Rs. 25,000 a month for officers at Level 9 and above and Rs. 17,300 for personnel at Level 8 and below at the base rates, now Rs. 31,250 and Rs. 21,625 after the dearness-allowance enhancement from 1 January 2024. It is drawn on top of pay and Military Service Pay , while the person is on flying duty.

The allowance answers a plain fact: military flying is among the most demanding and dangerous duties the government asks of anyone, and the 7th CPC rated it accordingly, at the top of the grid of risk and hardship cells. It shares that top grid cell with the Special Forces, the submariners and the commandos, which is a fair measure of where flying duty sits in the hierarchy of hazardous service.

This article explains what the allowance compensates, the Risk and Hardship matrix and why flying duty sits in R1H1, who draws it and on what condition, the two pay-band rates and the dearness-allowance escalation, how it relates to Military Service Pay and to the other defence allowances for altitude, Siachen and field service, when it starts and stops, and the tax position. It is a child of the allowances hub, and the figures are reconciled against the site’s risk and hardship allowance reference, which sets out the matrix in full.

What the allowance compensates

Flying a military aircraft is a duty with an unusual concentration of risk and demand. The aircrew carry the hazard of flight itself, sharpened in military operations by low-level flying, combat and operational sorties, night flying, and the constant readiness that operational squadrons keep. The training is long and exacting, the medical and currency standards are strict, and the margin for error is small. None of this is captured by the ordinary pay of the rank, which is set for the grade and not for the specific hazard of the flying appointment.

The Flying Allowance is the payment for that hazard and demand. It is a duty allowance, tied to being on flying duty, not a reward for pay level or a general service benefit. Because it compensates a duty rather than a cost, it is a flat monthly amount for the appointment rather than a reimbursement, and because the 7th CPC design gives every matrix cell just two rates, it turns only on whether the aircrew member is at Level 9 and above or at Level 8 and below, not on the fine gradations of rank within those bands.

That framing also marks the allowance off from the pay elements around it. It is not part of basic pay and not part of Military Service Pay; it is an addition drawn for the flying duty on top of both, and it stops when the flying duty stops, which is what makes it a duty allowance in the proper sense.

The Risk and Hardship matrix and cell R1H1

To see the rate, it helps to see the framework. The 7th Central Pay Commission replaced the old tangle of separately named risk and hardship allowances with a single Risk and Hardship matrix , a grid in which a duty is rated for its risk on one axis and its hardship on the other, and the cell fixes the monthly amount. The grid runs from R3H3 at the floor, where both risk and hardship are low, up to R1H1 at the top, where both are high, with a special cell called RH-Max above the grid for the most extreme duties of all. Each cell carries just two rates, a higher one for Level 9 and above and a lower one for Level 8 and below.

Flying duty for aircrew was placed in R1H1, the highest grid cell. That cell is the home of the most dangerous duties short of the RH-Max extremes: alongside the Flying Allowance it holds the Special Forces Allowance, the Submarine Allowance, the CoBRA commando allowance of the Central Reserve Police Force, the naval commando allowances, and High Altitude Allowance in its most severe category. Placing flying with this company is the 7th CPC’s judgement of where the risk of military flying sits, at the top of the grid, below only the Siachen and Antarctica extremes that were carved out above it.

The base rates of R1H1, effective 1 July 2017, are Rs. 25,000 a month for Level 9 and above and Rs. 17,300 for Level 8 and below. These are the figures the Flying Allowance is paid at, because the allowance simply is the R1H1 cell for aircrew on flying duty. The actual order placing flying duty in the cell and paying the rate is issued by the Ministry of Defence, since the 7th CPC left the placement of each duty in a cell to the administering ministry, but the cell and its rates are those of the common matrix.

The two pay-band rates and the escalation

The rate turns on the pay band, and the base and current figures are:

Pay band	Base rate, 1 July 2017 (Rs. per month)	Current rate since 1 January 2024 (Rs. per month)
Level 9 and above	25,000	31,250
Level 8 and below	17,300	21,625

The two-band design is deliberate. The 7th CPC cut the many rank-wise slabs of the old flying-allowance scheme down to two, a higher rate for officers at Level 9 and above and a lower rate for the personnel at Level 8 and below, so that the amount depends on the broad band rather than on each individual rank. Within a band, a more junior and a more senior officer on the same flying duty draw the same allowance, because the allowance answers the flying duty and not the seniority.

As a cell of the matrix, the Flying Allowance carries the matrix escalator: it rises by 25 per cent each time dearness allowance rises by 50 per cent. Dearness allowance reached 50 per cent with effect from 1 January 2024, which triggered the first such rise, so the R1H1 rates moved from Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 17,300 to Rs. 31,250 and Rs. 21,625. The next 25 per cent step arrives only when dearness allowance reaches 100 per cent, because the escalator moves in whole 50-point blocks. This is the same mechanism that lifts every cell of the matrix, so the Flying Allowance keeps pace with prices without waiting for a fresh pay commission.

The allowance before the 7th CPC

The Flying Allowance is not a 7th Central Pay Commission creation; military aircrew have drawn a flying allowance for a very long time. What the 7th CPC changed was its shape. Under the earlier arrangements the flying allowance was paid in a scheme of rank-wise slabs, with a different amount for each of several ranks, sitting outside any common framework and revised on its own schedule. That meant many rates to administer and a structure specific to flying that did not sit easily against the other risk and hardship allowances the forces drew.

The 7th CPC’s rationalisation did two things to it. It folded the flying allowance into the common Risk and Hardship matrix, so that flying duty was rated on the same risk-and-hardship basis as every other hazardous duty and placed in a cell, R1H1, rather than paid under a separate scheme. And it cut the many rank-wise slabs down to the matrix’s two bands, a rate for Level 9 and above and a rate for Level 8 and below, so that the amount no longer varied rank by rank. The continuity is that aircrew still draw a flying allowance for flying duty; the change is that it is now a cell of a common matrix with two bands, escalated with dearness allowance, rather than a stand-alone rank-wise scheme frozen between revisions.

Who draws it

The Flying Allowance is drawn by aircrew on flying duty. In the armed forces that means the pilots and the rest of the flight crew, the navigators, flight engineers and flight signallers, of the Indian Air Force, the Army Aviation Corps and naval aviation, and it extends to the flying crews of the Coast Guard and to analogous flying appointments in the allied uniformed services. The common thread is a flying appointment that requires the person to fly as part of the duty.

The eligibility is tied to the flying duty, not to a qualification held in the abstract. An officer who is a qualified pilot but is posted to a ground appointment, away from flying, does not draw the Flying Allowance for that period, because the allowance follows the flying duty and not the wings. Equally, the aircrew member on a flying appointment draws it for as long as that appointment lasts, at the rate for their pay band, and it stops on posting to a non-flying appointment. That is what keeps the allowance matched to the hazard it compensates: it is paid to the people actually flying, while they are flying.

Where it sits in a serving aircrew member’s pay

The Flying Allowance is one part of a larger set of additions that an aircrew member draws over basic pay, and it helps to see it against the others. A serving Air Force pilot at Level 9 or above draws the pay of their level in the defence pay matrix , Military Service Pay as a distinct element for the special conditions of military service, dearness allowance on the pay, and the Flying Allowance for the flying duty, along with the housing and other allowances that apply to the posting. These are separate entitlements with separate purposes: the pay is for the rank, Military Service Pay is for the nature of military service, and the Flying Allowance is for the flying duty specifically.

The distinction from Military Service Pay is the one most worth getting right. Military Service Pay is drawn across the defence forces by all eligible personnel, whatever their appointment, as a recognition of military service in general. The Flying Allowance is drawn only by the aircrew who fly, on top of Military Service Pay, as a recognition of the flying duty in particular. A pilot draws both; a non-flying officer of the same rank draws Military Service Pay but not the Flying Allowance. The two answer different things and are not alternatives.

A worked illustration

A rough illustration shows how the Flying Allowance fits into the whole of an aircrew member’s pay, using the current enhanced rate. Take an Air Force officer at Level 9 or above on a flying appointment. Over their basic pay in the defence pay matrix they draw Military Service Pay, dearness allowance on the reckonable pay, and the Flying Allowance for the flying duty at Rs. 31,250 a month, along with the housing and other allowances of the posting. A junior aircrew member at Level 8 or below draws the same set, with the Flying Allowance at the lower band rate of Rs. 21,625 a month.

Two features stand out. First, the Flying Allowance is a substantial figure in its own right, tens of thousands of rupees a month, which is proper for a duty the matrix rates at the top of its grid; it is not a token payment like the small fixed allowances but a significant part of the flying appointment’s remuneration. Second, it moves with the matrix escalator rather than with basic pay, so it steps up by another 25 per cent at each 50-point milestone of dearness allowance regardless of increments in the officer’s pay. An aircrew member comparing their pay slip across a posting change will see the Flying Allowance appear on taking up a flying appointment and disappear on moving to a ground appointment, which is the clearest sign that it is a duty allowance and not a part of pay.

Flying beyond the armed forces

Although the Flying Allowance is dominated by the armed forces, flying duty is not confined to them, and the same logic reaches the other uniformed flying appointments. The Coast Guard operates its own aircraft for maritime patrol and search and rescue, and its aircrew draw the allowance on the same footing as the defence forces. The air wings of the Central Armed Police Forces and analogous flying appointments in the allied services likewise carry a flying-duty allowance for the aircrew who fly, placed in the matrix through the orders of the administering ministry.

The unifying principle across all of these is that the allowance follows the flying duty, wherever it is performed in the uniformed services, rather than being confined to a single force. What differs is only the administering authority that issues the placement order, the Ministry of Defence for the armed forces and the Ministry of Home Affairs for the police air wings, working from the same common matrix. A reader looking at a specific force’s flying appointment should confirm the exact rate against that force’s own order, but the framework, cell R1H1 of the Risk and Hardship matrix with its two pay bands, is the common one.

How it relates to the altitude, Siachen and field allowances

The Flying Allowance is one of a family of defence risk and hardship allowances, and it is useful to place it against the others that a reader may be comparing it with, all of which are handled through the same matrix.

The most extreme duties sit above flying. Siachen Allowance was carved out above the matrix altogether, at Rs. 30,000 a month for personnel up to Level 8 and Rs. 42,500 for officers at Level 9 and above, because the Government judged even the matrix ceiling too low for the world’s highest battlefield. That is higher than the Flying Allowance, which sits in the top grid cell but below the Siachen and Antarctica carve-outs.

Alongside flying in R1H1 is the most severe category of the High Altitude Allowance, while its middle and lower categories sit lower in the matrix; the high altitude and Siachen allowance article covers those tiers. The field area allowance family sits in the middle of the matrix: the Highly Active Field Area Allowance in the R1H2 pair and the ordinary Field Area Allowance in R2H2, both below flying, reflecting the 7th CPC’s rating of sustained field service against the acute risk of flying.

There is also a close aviation cousin worth distinguishing. The test-pilot and flight-test-engineer allowances, for the flying of trials and test sorties, were placed not in R1H1 with the operational Flying Allowance but in the lower R1H3 pair, a different rating for a different, though related, flying task. So even within aviation the matrix separates operational flying, in the top cell, from flight-test work, lower down, which shows how finely the framework grades the flying duties.

When it starts and stops

Because the Flying Allowance follows the flying duty, its start and stop are tied to the flying appointment rather than to a fixed date. An aircrew member begins to draw it on taking up a flying appointment that carries the duty, at the rate for their pay band, and continues to draw it for as long as they hold that appointment and perform the flying duty. It stops on posting to a non-flying appointment, on the aircrew member ceasing flying duties, or where the currency and medical standards that a flying appointment requires are not met so that the person is off flying.

This is the ordinary logic of a duty allowance and it is worth stating plainly, because it explains why two officers of the same rank can draw different amounts: the one on a flying appointment draws the Flying Allowance and the one on a ground appointment does not, even though their pay and Military Service Pay are the same. The allowance is a marker of the flying duty being performed, and it moves with that duty across an officer’s career.

The tax position

The Flying Allowance is generally taxable as part of salary income. The Section 10(14) exemptions under Rule 2BB of the Income-tax Rules cover certain defined duty and area allowances, chiefly parts of the field-area and high-altitude allowances drawn by the armed forces, and those exemptions apply mainly under the old tax regime; a flying-duty allowance is not among the notified exemptions, so it does not enjoy a specific exemption of its own. It is therefore counted in gross salary and taxed in the ordinary way.

The regime matters here as elsewhere. Under the old regime the few defence duty and area exemptions that exist apply where their conditions are met, but the Flying Allowance is not one of them. Under the default new regime, under Section 115BAC , the great majority of the Section 10(14) exemptions are withdrawn in any case, so the question of a specific exemption largely falls away and the allowance is taxable. For how allowances feed into the salary computation and the choice of regime, see income tax for government employees and old versus new tax regime .

The 8th CPC outlook

The Flying Allowance was rationalised by the 7th Central Pay Commission into cell R1H1 of the Risk and Hardship matrix and has risen once since, by the 25 per cent enhancement from 1 January 2024, without needing a separate order because the escalation is built into the matrix. It answers a permanent need, since military flying will always carry acute risk, so the allowance itself is certain to continue in some form. Whether the 8th Central Pay Commission revises the R1H1 rates, restructures the matrix, or changes the escalation is not known, and no post-8th-CPC figure can be stated as fact until that commission reports and its recommendations are accepted. Until then the position is the R1H1 rate for the pay band, at the enhanced figures since 1 January 2024, for aircrew on flying duty, and a reader who needs the precise amount for a specific force should confirm it against that force’s own escalation order rather than assume a single figure.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the Flying Allowance?

It is a risk and hardship allowance paid to aircrew, the pilots, navigators and flight crew of the armed forces and the Coast Guard, for the risk and demand of flying duty. Under the 7th Central Pay Commission it is placed in cell R1H1, the highest grid cell of the Risk and Hardship matrix, and it is a flat monthly amount by pay band rather than a percentage of pay.

How much is the Flying Allowance?

The base rates of cell R1H1, effective 1 July 2017, are Rs. 25,000 a month for officers at Level 9 and above and Rs. 17,300 for personnel at Level 8 and below. As a matrix allowance it rises by 25 per cent each time dearness allowance rises by 50 per cent, so since 1 January 2024 the amounts are Rs. 31,250 and Rs. 21,625 a month respectively.

Who is eligible for the Flying Allowance?

It is drawn by aircrew on flying duty: the pilots, navigators, flight engineers and flight signallers of the Indian Air Force, the Army Aviation Corps, naval aviation and the Coast Guard, and analogous flying appointments in the allied uniformed services. It is tied to the flying appointment and the flying duty, so it is drawn while the person is on flying duties and stops when they are posted off flying.

Is the Flying Allowance the same as Military Service Pay?

No. Military Service Pay is a separate pay element paid to defence personnel to recognise the special conditions of military service, and it is drawn across the defence forces. The Flying Allowance is a duty allowance drawn only by aircrew on flying duty, on top of pay and Military Service Pay. They are distinct entitlements with distinct purposes.

Does the Flying Allowance rise with dearness allowance?

Yes. As a cell of the Risk and Hardship matrix it rises by 25 per cent each time dearness allowance rises by 50 per cent, the same escalator that lifts the whole matrix. Dearness allowance crossed 50 per cent on 1 January 2024, which took the R1H1 rates from Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 17,300 to Rs. 31,250 and Rs. 21,625. The next step comes when dearness allowance reaches 100 per cent.

Is the Flying Allowance taxable?

Generally yes, it is taxable as part of salary. The Section 10(14) exemptions under Rule 2BB cover certain defined duty allowances, chiefly parts of the field-area and high-altitude allowances, and those apply mainly under the old tax regime; a flying-duty allowance is not among them. The default new tax regime in any case withdraws the great majority of the Section 10(14) exemptions, so the Flying Allowance is counted in salary.

External references

References

Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (November 2015), Chapter 8.10 (Risk and Hardship Allowances): the Risk and Hardship matrix and the placement of the Flying Allowance in cell R1H1.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Resolution No. 11-1/2016-IC dated 6 July 2017: Government decision on the 7th CPC allowances, with the matrix cell rates effective 1 July 2017 and the 25 per cent rise at each 50-point step of dearness allowance.
Ministry of Defence orders placing flying duty in cell R1H1 of the matrix and notifying the Flying Allowance rates for aircrew of the armed forces and the Coast Guard.
Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, Office Memorandum No. 1/1/2024-E.II(B): dearness allowance revised to 50 per cent with effect from 1 January 2024, triggering the 25 per cent rise across the matrix.
Income-tax Act 1961, Section 10(14) read with Rule 2BB of the Income-tax Rules, and Section 115BAC (the new tax regime), on the taxability of duty allowances outside the notified exemptions.