IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta on Thursday informed the employees that the airline has decided to roll back the pay cuts, which were announced in March last week for senior staff members for the month of April in deference to the "government's wishes," as per media reports.

Dutta told employees through an email, which was cited in the agency report: "However, your Excom (Executive Committee) members and SVPs (senior vice presidents) have volunteered to take pay cuts this month. For everyone else, you can expect your April salaries to be paid without the pay cuts."

The prolonged lockdown across the world has taken a massive toll on the travel and tourism industry, which has severely impacted revenues of the Indian aviation industry. All domestic and international flights have been suspended during this lockdown.

"In deference to our government''s wishes of not reducing pay during the lockdown, we have decided not to implement the previously announced pay cuts during the month of April," Dutta added in the email.

Earlier on March 19, Dutta announced that the senior staff members would witness pay cuts in their salaries. He said that he himself would take 25 per cent deduction in his income for April.

"I am personally taking a 25 per cent pay cut, senior vice presidents and above are taking 20 per cent, vice presidents and cockpit crew are taking a 15 per cent pay cut, assistant vice presidents, Bands D along with cabin crew will take 10 per cent and Band Cs five per cent," Dutta had said on March 19.

All Indian airlines have announced pay cuts in the last few weeks. Recently, GoAir had asked the majority of employees to go on leave without pay.

Vistara has instituted a compulsory leave without pay for up to six days in April for senior employees. AirAsia India last week cut the salaries of senior employees by up to 20 per cent.

Air India has cut the salaries of employees by 10 per cent. SpiceJet has cut the salaries of mid and senior-level employees by 10-30 per cent.

As the majority of aircraft with Indian airlines are on the lease, they are currently seeking deferral of lease rentals by six months.

Dutta added in the email on Thursday: "Managing revenues is the fun and exciting part of the airline business, managing costs in a severe downturn is the dull and painful part of the business."

"Right now, we have little control over our revenues and a lot of control over our costs and therefore that is where we are focusing all our energies," he informed.

He mentioned that the customers would probably start flying tentatively at first and IndiGo needs to make sure that it instills enough confidence in the early users so that the first trickle of customers turns into a torrent.

"Our one source of revenue generation right now is in cargo operations and I want to thank all the people across the company who are working tirelessly to make an all-cargo operation work for us," Dutta noted.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW