In a time when the novel Coronavirus has affected each and every economy and sector around the globe, the Indian Airline IndiGo has decided that it will implement a salary cut across off verticals and on all of its employees.
Leading by example, IndiGo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ronojoy Dutta, himself, will take a 25% deduction in the salary. The company said that people at the post of Senior Vice President and above tsking a pay cut of 20%.
Company’s Vice Presidents and cockpit crews will take a pay cut of 15%.
With a precipitous drop in revenues, the survival of the entire airline industry is now at stake owing to the Coronavirus pandemic said Duttal while he announced the pay cuts.
Ashim Metra, IndiGo’s flight operations chief wrote an email to the pilots on Thursday morning saying that as the economic environment deteriorates, there is no airline which is insulated from the severe downturn.
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Mitra said, “It has become a necessity to initiate some tough calls and we are working on a string of measures that will be shared and implemented over the next few days and weeks,”.
As countries around the globe are sealing their borders either partially or wholly due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the aviation sector has taken an extreme hit as most of the airlines across the globe have curtailed their flight operations.
GoAir, another Indian airline, earlier terminated the contracts of its ex-pat pilots amidst the curtailed operations because of COVID-19.
Citing the “unprecedented” decline in the air travel, the budge carrier announced that it has suspended its international operations and was offering leave without pay programme to its staff on a rotational basis.
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Air India which is a government owned Indian airline may also announce a cut in salaries of its staff by 5% amind the growing financial woes and the decline of air travel due to COVID-19 pandemic. The deadly infection has grounded almost all of Air India’s international operations.
The airline which the government of India is trying to sell due to its losses did not get a single bid 2 years ago when the government first tried to auction it. Air India, in order to cut down its losses, has taken some steps including withdrawing the entertainment allowances if executive pilots and reducing the flying allowances of its cabin crew.
A source quoted by a leading news agency said, “Air India is considering a 5 per cent pay cut to its employees as it faces huge financial crisis due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has brought almost its entire international operations save the US, Canada and a few other markets, to the ground,”.
