Go First has assured its pilots that salaries will be disbursed as soon as possible as it prepares to relaunch operations.
On Friday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation gave a conditional nod to the airline’s resumption plan. The plan, which involves operation of 114 daily flights with 15 aircraft, is subject to availability of funds and court orders.
Go First, which suspended operations on May 2, has not paid pilots for May and June. Go First offered its captains and first officers ₹1,00,000 and ₹50,000 as a retention bonus but that has not helped stop the exodus from the airline.
“Your salary has been revised and the letter has been uploaded on the Go Team portal. Also, the salaries will be disbursed as soon as possible,” Rajit Ranjan (vice president-flight operations) wrote to pilots on Friday.
Resumption plans
Ranjan has also asked pilots to be available for flying and training duties so that there are no last minute disruptions on resumption of flight. He also urged them to exercise precaution and follow SOPs considering ongoing monsoon and gap in flying. “We are in the process of augmenting the staff and pilots strength so that we can ramp operations smoothly towards the third quarter which happens to the peak business season,” Ranjan wrote.
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The airline has also made changes in its operations department with captains Nitin Kharkar and Kubir Rai given charge of training roles. Air commodore (retd) Manmohan Singh Duggal will be general manager of performance engineering.
Meanwhile, the airline’s resolution professional Shailendra Ajmera is expected to update its lenders about the funding requirements on Monday. While originally the airline’s resumption plan proposed operations with 22 aircraft, the DGCA has allowed operations with 15 aircraft due to non availability of required number of pilots among other things. “The funding requirements would have to be reworked as lesser number of flights are planned,” a source said.
While the lenders have agreed in principle to provide ₹450 crore loan to Go First, the final decision will be taken by respective boards of each bank.