New Delhi:
IndiGo chief executive officer (CEO) Ronojoy Dutta said on Thursday the airline was instituting pay cuts for senior employees. The announcement of pay cut comes at a time companies are assessing the impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic on business. The health ministry said earlier on Thursday that the number of coronavirus cases in India had risen to 169, after 18 fresh cases from various parts of the country. The airline’s CEO said he would himself take the highest cut of 25 per cent amid the coronavirus outbreak which has hit the aviation industry hard.
“With the precipitous drop in revenues, the very survival of the airline industry is now at stake,” the IndiGo CEO said in an email to employees. “We have to pay careful attention to our cash flow so that we do not run out of cash.”
“With a great deal of reluctance and a deep sense of regret, we are therefore instituting pay cuts for all employees, excluding Bands A and B, starting April 1, 2020,” Mr Dutta wrote in the letter.
The two bands – A and B – are the lowest salary brackets in the class that includes most of the airline’s employees.
“I am personally taking a 25 per cent pay cut, SVPs (senior vice presidents) and above are taking 20 per cent, VPs (vice presidents) and cockpit crew are taking a 15 per cent pay cut, AVPs (assistant vice presidents), Bands D along with cabin crew will take 10 per cent and Band Cs five per cent,” Mr Dutta added.
The IndiGo CEO said he knew how hard it was for families to take a cut in “take-home pay”.