Jet Airways offloads 1,900 staff
16 Oct 2008
Mumbai: Jet Airways said Wednesday that 1,900 of the airline's13,000 staff were being given termination notices. The number has more than doubled from the 850 announced yesterday. The move by India's largest private carrier to jettison staff at such massive levels has been initiated almost immediately after arriving at an understanding with rival Kingfisher Airlines over operational synergies.
According to industry sources, this is the third time in recent months that Jet has slashed its workforce. It dispensed with some 1,200 employees after acquiring Air Sahara last year, and unloaded another 700 a couple of months ago.
Like other airlines Kingfisher, too, has divested itself of staff though in more limited numbers.
Jet and Kingfisher have a combined strength of 19,000 employees and a combined fleet of 189 aircraft. They operate 1,009 daily flights, 82 of which are on international routes.