Jet Airways Employees Stages Protest In Front Of Civil Aviation Ministry Today

Guwahati: The Jet Airways employees today protested outside the Civil Aviation Ministry demanding the revival of the airline and payment of their pending salaries.

The employees protested amid the State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders struggling to find a buyer for the airline which ceased operations around mid-last month due to acute liquidity crisis.

Around 200 employees of Jet Airways demonstrated in front of Civil Aviation Ministry with the banners in their hands reading, “Hear our cry, let 9W fly,” “we fly you around, don’t let us be on ground,” “we have dependents to feed, please don’t let 9W bleed” etc. 9W is the flight code for Jet Airways.

Delhi Police and CRPF personnel erected barriers to stop the protestors as they moved towards the ministry. Three employees of the full-service carrier met the joint secretary of Civil Aviation Ministry, S K Mishra.

According to an employee who met the Mishra said that they have given him an update about today’s conditions within Jet Airways. “We have not got salaries for the last five months. In between our medical coverage has also been stopped as the management has told us that they have no revenue. We also told him about three important concerns for the airline-employees’ pending salaries, no management is there now to look after Jet Airways and expedition of SBI’s bidding process,” the employee informed.

However, the Chief Executive Officer of Jet Airways Vinay Dube along with Chief Financial Officer Amit Agarwal, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer Kuldeep Sharma and Chief People Officer Rahul Taneja had resigned from their respective posts on May 14.

The employee who met the joint secretary of civil aviation ministry said, “The joint secretary Mishra said that the government is very much concerned about the revival of Jet Airways. He said that the higher officers know about it and dialogue and meeting are going on and that we told Mishra that the dialogue and meeting have been going on for the last 3-4 months but nothing has been done on paper as yet.”

The employee further informed that Mishra has been told that aircraft of the airline are being de-registered and the primary concern is the pending salaries of the employees to which Mishra replied that he will deliver the message to the top bosses about the employees' concerns.

The employee further stated that the central government would be given a petition on Tuesday itself. The lenders offered the airlines 31.2 percent-75 percent stake in the company on a fully diluted basis. The Airlines owes over Rs. 8000 crore in debt to the lenders.

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