Covid-19: GoAir is third airline to cut salaries, all staff to take hit

Extent of March pay cut not known, lowest pay grades will suffer least; domestic airlines have sought urgent funding from govt to pay 50% staff salaries for next three months

GoAir will cut salary of all its employees for month of March following grounding of all domestic flights in the country.

GoAir is the third airline to announce a pay cut after IndiGo and Air India which have slashed salaries to tide over Covid-19 crisis.

"Under the current conditions we find ourselves in we are left with no choice but to extend salary cuts for all of us for the month of March. We will ensure that lowest pay grades suffer the least," the airline's chief executive officer Vinay Dube wrote in an email today. The letter did not reveal the extent of pay cut for each category.

The pay cut comes even as domestic airlines seek urgent funding from government to pay 50 per cent of staff salaries for the next three months. Domestic flights were shut from midnight of March 24 and closure will remain in place till April 14.

The Wadia group airline had earlier implemented leave without pay for a section of its staff and fired foreign pilots to cut costs. Later the one month leave without pay was extended to Indian pilots under training or to those not released for active duties.

"In GoAir's 14-year history we have never cut employee salaries or deferred salary payments. When the tide turns once again -- and it will -- GoAir will find a way to compensate all of you for the sacrifice you are being asked to make at this juncture. Given the strong business fundamentals of GoAir, I believe that moment is not so far away," Dube said.

"How can the airline cut March salaries when we have worked for 24 days," an employee asked. Experts however said pay cut is a sensible thing to do in the current situation to preserve cash.