On Wednesday evening, one of the leading private carrier, Jet Airways announced its plans to temporarily suspend its operations because of not being able to secure enough funds from investors. The announcement came as no surprise as some employees had already been looking for jobs amid the controversy and financial woes.
Qatar Airways recently held a job interview for cabin crew in Mumbai. Reportedly, the event was filled with Jet Airways employees seeking to move to a new airline.
Jet Airways has not paid the staff including pilots, cabin crew, engineers and so on since January citing financial issues. As it continued to face financial woes, the employees were not paid for a long time yet no formal statement was issued till Wednesday.
After not being able to pay their staff and pilots, the private carrier has accumulated a debt of 800 crores.
“It is very unfortunate that we have to see this day,” said Karan Chopra, president of Jet Airways’ pilots’ union, National Aviators Guild (NAG), after Jet announced the temporary closure of domestic operations.
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“We are hoping that this is a temporary suspension of operations and, once the bids are out, which I am hopeful of, the operations will resume,” Chopra said. NAG has decided to take legal action against them for not being able to pay the salary.
The downfall of Jet seems similar to what Kingfisher Airlines Ltd had faced in 2012 and shut shop after the authorities suspended its flying licence. Many employees were left stranded and were never paid their dues.
The Jet employees are presently unclear as to the status of when the operations will resume and some are already planning to move on while others are protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and outside the Mumbai headquarters of the carrier.
.@jetairways Employees protest against the complete suspension of operations, at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. #JetAirwaysCrisis
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) April 18, 2019
The protesting group in Mumbai made a human chain and blocked the gate.
“Where is the government when so many jobs are on the line?” a Jet Airways staff told leading news channel, standing in front of the Jet Airways building along with his colleagues who were all in their uniforms.
“Gratuity, provident fund, nothing is being given. The Labour Ministry is not doing anything,” as told by the Jet Airways staff.
Jet Airways is the seventh airline to go down since May 2014. In the last five years, airlines like Air Pegasus, Air Costa, Air Carnival, Air Deccan, Air Odisha and Zoom Air have all gone belly up.
Jet Airways has over 16,000 employees, including about 1,300 pilots in the workforce.