The global Coronavirus pandemic has left no industry out of its spread. It has hit all the commercial sectors badly, and aviation and tourism industry are no exceptions. Wadia group-owned budget carrier GoAir recently announced that all its employees will have to tolerate a pay cut in March. The news came after all domestic and international passenger flights operating in the country have been cancelled to check the spread of coronavirus.
What Is It
As Coronavirus has drastically impacted revenues of the aviation sector, GoAir CEO Vinay Dube stated on Wednesday that all employees will be taking a pay cut in March. ‘Under the current conditions we find ourselves in, we are left with no choice but to extend salary cuts for all of us for the month of March. We will ensure that the lowest pay grades suffer the least,’ Dube was reported as saying.
The decision was taken after the PM announced the extension of the lockdown for 21 days.
Actions Taken In Last Few Weeks
During the last few weeks, GoAir has already taken some cost cutting measures – it has laid off its expat pilots, asked its employees to go on leave without pay on a rotational basis, and announced that its top leadership would be taking a pay cut of up to 50 per cent.
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The budget carrier GoAir has been serving as one of the trusting airlines for 14 years. ‘In GoAir’s 14-year history, we have never cut employee salaries or deferred salary payments. And throughout our 14-year history our employees have stood by us and taken care of our customers with pride and honour,’ it was stated.
India has banned international commercial passenger flights from Sunday. All passenger flights have been cancelled for three weeks. Moreover, domestic flights have also been suspended from Tuesday midnight.
Vistara, Indigo, Air India & SpiceJet Are Also On The Same Path
Budget carriers like Vistara, IndiGo and now SpiceJet have also announced similar move in the light of coronavirus spread. Last week, IndiGo had announced a pay cut of up to 25% for its senior employees.
SpiceJet has just decided to cut 10-30% salary of all its employees in March, with Chairman Ajay Singh opting for highest 30% trimming in compensation, the airline said in an e-mail communication to the staff on Tuesday.
Also read: 4 Airlines Have Asked Crew To Go On Unpaid Leave Due To Coronavirus
Even Air India has stated that due to “insurmountable dip” in revenues, it will cut allowances of all employees – except cabin crew members – by 10% for next three months.
Indigo and Vistara have paid March salaries to employees. Whereas GoAir and SpiceJet had to cut some percentage in March as well. Though all these airlines are believed to have strong cash reserves or strong promoters, the condition of some other airlines is far worse.