Jet Airways’ domestic pilots body, the National Aviators Guild (NAG), has written to the State Bank of India (SBI) for a personal audience with Ranjish Kumar, chairman, SBI. The pilots have made it known that they will stop flying from 1 April, if they are not paid their pending salaries. They are also seeking details about how the Airline will be revived.
The Guild has requested the new management to clear the pending salaries at the earliest. The meeting with the chairman has been sought by NAG so that the staff can be reassured and all the uncertainty that has gripped them be dispelled.
Naresh Goyal, founder chairman, Jet Airways, announced his plan to step down and also bring their stake down to half. Jet’s foreign partner Etihad has also has cut its stake by half, to 12 per cent.
Banks and state-run lenders, led by SBI will now be putting in Rs 1,500 crore of emergency liquidity into the airline and convert its total debt of over 9,700 crore into equity worth 50.1 per cent at a price of Re 1.
The Guild represents almost a 1000 of the total 1600 pilots of Jet Airways. Many of them have been poached by other rival airlines. And the Guild has emphasised on the fact that its members have supported Jet Airways through its financial crisis and uncertainty, and will continue to help during its revival phase.
