Covid blow 2.0 : SpiceJet defers salaries of staff

NEW DELHI: With the second wave of the pandemic raging across the country and citizens choosing to stay indoors, revenuestrapped private carrier Spice- Jet has decided to defer up to 50 per cent of the April salary of its employees. The deferred salaries, it said, will be paid when the situation improves.

“The domestic passenger traffic across all airlines which had peaked at more than 300,000 passengers per day in mid-February 2021 (showing signs of recovery), has now drastically dropped to less than 130,000 passengers per day. In this backdrop, the company has once again been compelled to implement certain tough economic measures to secure the long term interest of our Spice- Jet family,” the airline’s vice-president (Operations), Gurcharan Arora informed pilots on Saturday.

According to SpiceJet employees, ground staff, cabin crew, commercial staff and pilots have been paid 10-50 per cent of the April salary while junior employees, including loaders and drivers, have received their monthly payment in full for the month. Last year, when there was a complete lockdown of domestic and international operations, many airlines, including Spicejet, rationalised their working capital by cutting down salaries.

This year, again, while airlines are facing a difficult environment to bounce back from the lows of last week when operations were completely suspended for months, the rise in Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices are expected to hurt the sector further. Though it is expected that the loss will be lesser compared to the last fiscal (2020-21) at 35-40 per cent and around `9,500-10,000 crore. These findings were a result of a study by CRISIL Ratings of the top three airlines, which account for 78 per cent of the total passenger traffic.