JetLite to reduce headcount by a third

Former Air Sahara, which was rebranded as JetLite when Naresh Goyal took over the airline and made it a value carrier for his flagship airline Jet Airways, is planning to reduce its staff strength by almost a third.

JetLite currently has around 2,300 people, and is looking to reduce this number by a third in its bid to shave costs and integrate key functions with the flagship carrier Jet Airways.

Confirming the development, Jet Airways' CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur said that the integtation process, which is necessary to keep JetLite afloat, willl witness a shift of certain employees from JetLite to Jet, and ''the workforce for both the airlines will be combined.'' He said that the majority of the workforces, almost two-thirds, would be integrated with Jet, and the remaining one-third would be offered a golden handshake or voluntary separation scheme, which would be ''an attractive'' scheme.

Reports indicate that the downsizing will happen in airport services, security, sales and marketing and human resources, and the integration process is set to be completed by 26 September.

Though the integration will take place, JetLite and Jet Airways will remain individual separate brands, with differentiated product offerings.

JetLite has already seen employee reductions from the 4,500 at the time of the takeover to around 2,300 currently.