By IANS,
New Delhi : Jet Airways Friday said it would retrench excess staff to tackle the financial crisis it faces following the global slowdown, but stressed that reports of huge layoffs were overstated.
“Retrenchment is the last resort for us. We have excess staff,” a Jet Airways spokesperson told IANS. “But reports appearing in the media about huge layoffs are grossly overstated.”
Justifying the decision, the carrier said the worldwide economic slowdown has had an adverse impact on all businesses including the aviation sector.
“The aviation industry in India, apart from the economic slowdown, is also burdened with excess capacity, high crude oil prices that prevailed in large part of 2008-09 besides depressed demand for both business and leisure travel,” Jet said in a statement.
The airlines did not reveal the number of employees laid off or to be given the pink slip, but claimed it had set up an outplacement facility to help these employees find a job in the hospitality and aviation sectors.
Jet said it had implemented several measures to tide over the economic downturn, including a comprehensive cost-restructuring exercise, withdrawal of operations on uneconomical routes and capacity downsizing on some international sectors.
Other steps include leasing out of excess capacity, freezing recruitment and capital expenditure, pruning executive perks and temporary reduction of management salaries, and closing down of international crew bases and ticketing offices on leased premises.