Air Sahara sales agents fear job loss

New Delhi: The sales and ground handling agents of Air Sahara are up in arms against the management of Jet Airways, as they think the positioning of Jetlite on the lines of a low cost carrier and cutting down expenses will cost them their jobs.
Air Sahara, which was recently acquired by Jet Airways, has about eight to ten general sales agents (GSAs) in India and about 39 overseas. The GSAs are generally small companies in remote areas who handle marketing & sales and appoint travel agents in different areas. Recently, Air Sahara had also begun to outsource its ground handling services at smaller and remote airports to ground handling agents (GHAs).
Jet has never needed to outsource its ground handling to GHAs as it manages with its own equipment and personnel. Moreover, it has its own GSAs across the country. Post merger, the Air Sahara GSAs and GHAs do not know where their future lies and whether their services will be required anymore.
According to a GSA, who handles Air Sahara sales in several areas in North India, no one is expecting a fair deal at Jet’s hands.
A series of meetings held this month between the Jet management executives and several Air Sahara GSAs and GHAs have been of little help. “They announced that the ticketing for Jetlite will be only done on the internet. That means anyone who gets a login id and password can sell Jetlite tickets.
10/05/07 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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Categories: Air Sahara May 2007, Jet Airways May 2007, Jet Lite May 2007