The airline promised its employees that the deferred salaries will be paid once the situation improves.
SpiceJet has deferred up to 50 percent of the April salary of its employees due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on aviation sector, including the airline.
According to a report in Business Standard, the airline’s Chairman Ajay Singh has forgone his entire salary as the company promised its employees that the deferred salaries will be paid once the situation improves.
While junior employees, including loaders and drivers, have received their salary in full, others including ground staff, cabin crew, commercial staff and pilots have been paid only 10-50 percent of the April salary.
“The domestic passenger traffic across all airlines which had peaked at more than 300,000 passengers per day in mid-February 2021 (showing signs of recovery), has now drastically dropped to less than 130,000 passengers per day. In this backdrop, the company has once again been compelled to implement certain tough economic measures to secure the long term interest of our SpiceJet family,” the airline’s Vice President (Operations), Gurcharan Arora, wrote to pilots on May 1, reported the daily.
“The salary deferment (of between 10 per cent to 50 per cent) in the higher pay grades is a temporary measure to survive this economic crisis and the deferred salaries will be paid by the company once the conditions improve,” Arora added.
