Jet Airways To Lay Off Staff

Thursday, 8th May 2014 at 10:29am

Jet Airways has been on the red since the height of the country's aviation crisis in 2012. To temper its massive losses and ease its debt burdens, the airline is now looking at the possibility of laying off some of its staff across the country.

The airline already ceased flying to two destinations, Vijaywada and Tirupati, and has shut down its offices there. Its office in Visakhapatnam will soon see its door shut on June.

The cash-trapped airline has already reduced flights from Kolkata by 15, which means a good number of employees may have already lost their job.

The airline, according to an anonymous but reliable source, has canceled some of its domestic flights in a progressive mode and subsequently closed its offices. Contract employees were said to be the first ones to lose their job following the cessation of operations in those destinations.

More domestic destinations will be removed from its network soon and might cancel some flights as well as Jet Airways enters into the transition period with its partnership with Etihad who had just completed its 24% stake purchase.

Etihad's substantial stake ownership in Jet Airways has significantly affected the latter's international route network as it has to adjust accordingly to avoid overcapacity of certain routes where Etihad is also flying. As a result, Jet has to close some routes and focus on feeding Etihad's main hub in Abu Dhabi.

When sought for comments on the issue of laid-off employees, the airline merely said that it has not terminated any of its staff.

On the contrary, the airline claimed that it even continues to recruit more workers for vacancies across the country such as flight attendants and pilots because it is currently facing an employee exodus. In fact, the airline currently has no Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), and Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Jet implemented a massive lay-off last 2008, when it axed close to 2,000 employees from its workforce nationwide.

By: Pete Lee.