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Coronavirus: GoAir says employees to take pay cut in March
Mumbai: As the government ceased all the domestic and international flight operations, in order to stop spread of Covid-19, low-cost carrier GoAir CEO Vinay Dube
Mumbai: As the government ceased all the domestic and international flight operations, in order to stop spread of Covid-19, low-cost carrier GoAir CEO Vinay Dube stated on Wednesday that all employees will be taking a pay cut in March.
On March 17, GoAir had not only laid of its expatriate pilots but also had asked employees of every department to go on unpaid leaves on rotational basis.
GoAir, the country’s fourth largest airline by passenger numbers, has a staff of around 6000.
In an internal official communication to its employees, Vinay Dube- Chief executive officer (CEO) stated, “With the grounding of our fleet for the next 21 days, GoAir will require only a skeletal base of employees to focus on the preservation of our aircraft and the reopening of our skies... under the current conditions we find ourselves in, we are left with no choice but to exrend salary cuts for all of us for the month of march. We will ensure that lowest pay grades suffer the least.’
Dube assured its employees that they will find a way to compensate them for this pay cut once the situation gets normal.
As reported by HT earlier, India’s largest airline- IndiGo too had announced up to 25% pay cut for its employees. Air India also took off more than 100 of its retired pilots who were re-employed on contracts. It had also withdrew entertainment allowances to executive pilots and effective April 1, reduced fuel allowances by 10%.
With the fall in passenger volumes, the seat factor (occupancy) of airlines could see a sharp 50-60% decline over the next three months, stated Acuite Rating and Research report released on March 14.
Aviation think tank, Centre for Asia Aviation (CAPA), has warned that most airlines across the world will go bankrupt if the governments do not take coordinated action.
