India’s largest airline by market share, IndiGo, on Thursday decided to roll back the earlier announced pay cut in employee salaries for the month of April, despite having its wings clipped due to the coronavirus lockdown. IndiGo Chief Executive Officer, Ronojoy Dutta said that the rollback of pay cut in April salaries was as per the government’s wishes, news agency PTI reported. Earlier last month, IndiGo had announced that employees of the carrier will take a 25% pay cut along with Dutta himself standing in the line of fire to take a pay cut.
However, with pay cuts being rolled back for other employees, executive committee members and senior vice presidents of IndiGO have volunteered to take pay cuts this month. The aviation industry is in a complete lockdown with bookings being canceled until any further orders. IndiGo, India’s leading carrier having a market share of close to 50% according to the DGCA, had last month said that employees will be taking a pay cut of up to 25% from April 1. Senior vice presidents and above-grade employees of IndiGo were to take a 20% pay cut, vice presidents and cockpit crew were staring at a 15% reduction in their monthly salaries. IndiGo’s cabin crew and assistant vice presidents were also in for 10% pay cut from April, however, all this has changed now.
Aviation players across the globe have taken extreme measures to cope with the recent turmoil. National carrier Air India has announced cut in employees’ allowances and domestic carrier GoAir has also announced salary cuts for employees. Spice Jet’s Ajay Singh also took a 30% pay cut in the month of March owing to the coronavirus lockdown that has left the industry struggling. Airlines could lose up to $113 billion as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the International Air Transport Association.
