Jet to phase out expatriate pilots

Mumbai: Giving in to the overwhelming demand of getting rid of expatriate pilots as early as it can the Jet Airways management today agreed to do so but in a phased six month retrenchment plan.
However, the management has its way in convincing non-pilot employees to take “voluntary” five to 25 per cent pay cut since the largest private airline of the country could not afford to bear the annual wage bill of over Rs 2,000 crore.
Jet has decided to limit expatriate pilots’ flying hours to 75 per month. Compared with the strength of 750 Indian pilots the expatriates are about 240 and draw 50 per cent more wages than their native counterparts. The airline has a total workforce of about 15,000 employees. Chairman Mr Naresh Goyal over a month ago wanted to lay-off around 2,000 probationers but had to face strong opposition from the employees as well as the government. Mr Goyal withdrew his “arbitrary” orders. Foreigners have been flying mostly Jet’s 737 fleet. Recently about 27 of them had been retrenched.
The company is desperately seeking to cut operational cost to minimise its losses which are said to be mounting minimum Rs 8 crore to 10 crore per day. The company suffered due to recession in the aviation industry as well as increase in fuel prices.
24/11/08 The Statesman

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

Categories: Foreign Nov 2008, Jet Airways Nov 2008