Jet staffers don't believe Goyal unaware of layoff plan

Mumbai: After reinstating all 1,900 employees whose jobs had been terminated, Jet Airways officials admitted that bad business practices and wrong planning had led to the retrenchment-reinstatement fiasco. Yes, it was wrong planning. We all (airlines) did bad business, Jet Airways executive director Saroj Datta told TOI minutes after company chairman Naresh Goyal finished addressing the media late on Thursday night.
Senior officials are already planning out survival strategies to manage the finances. The salaries of the reinstated cabin crew may not be cut but there are chances that the company may try to reduce salaries on a voluntary basis of other staff. "We were told that our salaries would not be affected. So, if the finances have to be managed, then salaries of our seniors may have to be cut,'' a reinstated cabin crew member said.
Jet Airways officials privately admitted another possibility, that of fares going up, as the company was finding it extremely difficult to break even. "We may charge fares that make more economic sense,'' one of them said.
Airline officials also indicated the contracts of the expatriate pilots might not be renewed and new staff would not be hired. "Hiring may stop; it, in fact, already has'', Datta said. "We are looking to reduce costs and so we may think of giving aircraft on lease and pull back on our expansion plans in the Shanghai and Singapore sectors,'' he added. Datta told TOI that increasing capacity had landed most airlines in a soup.
Datta admitted that the airline had gone on a hiring spree and hence landed up with surplus employees.
18/10/08 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Jet Airways Oct 2008