Crisis averted at Jet Airways; pilots defer by 2 weeks decision not to fly

A major crisis at the struggling carrier Jet Airways was averted Sunday after its pilots' body National Aviator's Guild (NAG) deferred to April 15 its call of halting operations.

The decision was taken at an open house meeting of NAG members that took place both in Mumbai and Delhi Sunday afternoon, a guild source said.

The NAG, which claims representation of around 1,100 pilots of the total 1,600 with the full-service carrier, last month announced that its members will not fly from April 1 unless their pending salary dues were cleared and clarity on future payments was provided by March 31.

Jet Airways has been defaulting on salary payments to pilots, engineers and senior management since August last year. The loss-making airline, which is now under the ownership of SBI-led consortium of lenders following a debt-recast plan, Saturday said it could remit only the remaining amount of December salary to pilots and others.

Jet Airways engineers have also reportedly threatened to stop work from April 1 if their dues are not cleared by March 31.

However, the airline expressed its inability to clear the remaining three months dues of the staff immediately.

"The board of directors and the management team are working as fast as possible to implement the resolution plan agreed with the consortium of Indian lenders to quickly restore the much-needed stability to our operations and build a sustainable future for the airline," Jet Airways chief executive officer Vinay Dube said in a communication to pilots and engineers Saturday.

"These are complex processes and it has taken longer than we had expected and as such we are only able to remit your remaining salary for December 2018," he said.