Faced with huge losses, rising debts and an annual salary bill of over Rs1,200 crore, India's second largest air carrier by market share, Jet Airways has axed its 120 foreign airhostesses from its 3,000 cabin crew in a bid to save on costs.

This new round of axing cabin crew, comes close on the heels of Jet Airways terminating contracts of about 60 cabin crew, who were on probation, and another 50 employees who have superannuated, early this month as the airline moved to cut cost and stay trim. (See: Jet Airways lays off around 110 employees)

The axing of the 120 foreign airhostesses from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were in line with Jet Airways announcement last week of closing its Far East crew bases and had asked its pilots and other staff to relocate to the Mumbai or Delhi offices.

The airline was confident that the Indian airhostesses would be able to handle the foreign routes as they have experience of flying in this sector for five years.

Last October, Jet Airways had announced the retrenchment of about 1,900 employees after a strategic alliance with Kingfisher. It, however, took back the employees following widespread protests.

Last month, the Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways, because of falling traffic and rising operational costs, had in a cost-restructuring exercise, cut the salaries of over 370 management-level employees earning a gross salary of Rs75,000 per month and above. (See: Jet Air management to take salary cuts)

Earlier, unconfirmed reports had said that Jet Airways was planning to cut its fleet by nearly a fifth, as the company looks to further slash costs. The airline currently has 87 aircraft operating on the domestic and international sectors. It is planning to lease out around 15 from this fleet, said a company official familiar with the matter.

Jet Airways, having already slashed 18-20 per cent of its fleet capacity in the winter schedule (October-February), is likely to further reduce capacity, especially if air traffic slips further. (See: Jet Air may slash capacity further)

The airline may also consider leasing out some more of its 52 narrow-bodied - Boeing 737 aircraft if the current market situation does not improve. Jet Air has already taken out nine of its wide-bodied aircraft from its fleet and leased them to foreign airlines.

Not only are foreign airhostesses, but foreign pilots operating in India also face the daunting prospect of going back home.

With several Indian airlines having been brought to the brink due to the price wars of the past few years, the oil-price shock last year, and the current recession, most of them have now decided to end the contracts of their highly paid foreign pilots, in order to save on costs. (See: Foreign pilots in India to face the axe as airline revenues plunge)

Of the nearly 950 foreign pilots, 810 commanders and approximately 140 co-pilots, working in nearly all the Indian airlines, have become the first highly-paid casualties of the cost cutting exercise adopted by the Indian airline industry.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, (DGCA) had issued an ultimatum to all domestic airlines that Indian pilots should operate all their aircrafts by July 2010.