Jet Airways pilots salary dues: Threat held out to stop additional duties

The Jet Airways' pilots have threatened not to perform additional duties from next month if their salary dues were not cleared by November 30, an airline source said Monday. Besides, the airline's domestic pilots body National Aviator's Guild (NAG), which has so far allegedly been soft on the issue, is likely to meet here on Tuesday to discuss the prevailing financial situation at the carrier, it said. 

The Naresh Goyal-controlled carrier has been reporting losses since last three successive quarters and defaulting on salary payments to a section of its staff. "Pilots have decided that that they will not perform any additional duty and adhere only to the roster from December 1 if all salary dues are not cleared by November 30. The decision has been communicated to the management verbally," the source told PTI.

Queries sent to Jet Airways on the issue did not yield any response.  Around 1,600 Jet Airways pilots along with the cash-starved airline's engineers and senior management officials have been paid only 50 per cent of the September salary.

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They are yet to receive the remaining 50 per cent of the month's (September) salary, besides the full salary of October. "Almost 15 per cent employees have not been receiving their salaries on time and I am sure they are less than happy," Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube had acknowledged during the post Q2 earnings analysts call last week.

According to the source, as against 75 to 80 hours of flying per month, the Jet Airways' pilots have been flying up to 90 hours per month by taking up over-time duties as there is an acute shortage of pilots, particularly on the Boeing 737 fleet.

Notably, as many as 10 domestic flights were cancelled abruptly from Mumbai on Sunday due to shortage of pilots, though the airline attributed the cancellation to "operational reasons".

After posting a loss of Rs 1,323 crore in the June quarter, Jet Airways announced in September that it will pay pilots, engineers and senior management in two tranches--11th and 26th of every month -- till November, a schedule which it has failed to stick to.