Air India is going down, help: chief tells employees

Mumbai: The chief of Air India on Saturday told his employees the airline is in crisis and they must pitch in to save the company.

"This is an hour of crisis. This is a fight for survival. The survival of our own airline,” said Arvind Jadhav, chairman and managing director of the airline, in a letter to employees.

"Employees have been receiving their wages, salaries every month even when people in the industry have lost jobs or seen emoluments take a dip. We should consider ourselves fortunate that we have been insulated from the adverse impact of the economic meltdown so far," Jadhav said.

His letter comes at a time when the employees of the carrier have called for an indefinite strike from July 1 if the management delays their salaries.

Air India, unlike many other airlines, has not retrenched or laid-off of staff. "Air India has only decided to defer salary and PLI (productivity-linked incentive) for June only by 15 days and requested senior officials to voluntarily forego July salary."

Jadhav said loans from financial institutions at high interest rates cannot be availed endlessly to meet working capital requirement. "Time has come to face the moment of truth in Air India as well."

Airlines have taken harsh and unpleasant decisions, but "we (Indian Airlines) should consider ourselves fortunate that we have been insulated from the adverse impact of the economic slowdown so far."

He cautioned employees that disinvestment was an option if the airline slipped into further losses. "We need to be conscious of the impact that disinvestment/privatisation can have on our own lives, should this materialise."

Jadhav urged employees to "rise up to the challenge" and demonstrate their ability to overcome the crisis. ''We not only have more experience in running an airline as compared to others but also have the ability to overcome the crisis and emerge with flying colours.

''The experience and commitment to the Company will be of no gain

if we cannot demonstrate this. We have to show our critics that all

of us can make Air India fly high again,'' he said.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global aviation industry is expected to lose about $9 billion this year.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) says the Indian aviation industry is likely to incur around $2-billion losses this year. Two major domestic air-carriers, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have reduced jobs, slashed salaries, besides

Global airlines such as Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, Air France-KLM and Qantas have taken similar measures to lessen the impact of current crisis.

Pilots of the Singapore Airlines have agreed to one-day compulsory leave every month. Managers and administrative officers are taking one day a month either as unpaid leave or from their annual leave.

British Airways has frozen pay and cut around 2,500 jobs since last year. It has also sought 4,000 voluntary redundancies.

American Airlines has announced plans would cut up to 1,600 positions by August this year. Japan Airlines wants to cut 1,200 jobs by March 2010.

(With inputs from PTI, UNI, and IANS)