JetLite Suffers Mass Exodus Of Pilots

Tuesday, 30th September 2014 at 03:44am

There seems to be no end in sight for Jet Airways' misery as it looks helplessly at its pilots jumping ship, or rather plane, after the airline announced the dissolution of its low-cost unit.

Most of the pilots who abandoned JetLite have accepted juicy offers from its major rival, IndiGo, and the newcomer, Vistara.

Vistara is a brainchild of the joint venture between the Tata Group of India and Singapore Airlines. It has yet to obtain a license to operate from the regulatory board to commence operations.

The mass exodus of at least 70 of its pilots will leave JetLite having not enough pilots to operate all its aircraft. Industry standard dictates that airlines should assign at least 12 pilots for each aircraft. That means, up to six Boeing 737 or ATR in its fleet will be grounded, as a result.

The Jet Airways management and the JetLite pilots met several times but, unfortunately, the two parties were not able to come up with a win-win solution.

The pilots were reportedly not happy with the terms offered to them by the airline management upon the dissolution of JetLite and its planned merger with the mother unit before the year ends. JetLite had a total of 189 pilots prior to the exodus, 98 of whom were captains and the rest had a rank of first officers.

Jet Airways said they have offered JetLite pilots career options after the dissolution, but they (pilots) chose to leave the company and look elsewhere for a better offer.

The pilots have asked the DGCA to shorten the notice period of their resignation, from the mandatory six months to one month, so that they can start their new job at their new employer.

The pilots were apprehensive of the prospect that they will be left jobless if JetLite will cease to operate in a few months time if they have to wait for the mandatory six months.

Another option that Jet Airways reportedly offered to the pilots was a job at Etihad Airways for an 18-month contract. However, only 20 of them can be absorbed by Etihad and only those who are relatively young and no own families yet.

All offers were rejected outright by the pilots and decided to work elsewhere.

By: Pete Lee.