JetLite to cut staff by a third

Golden handshake planned, move to cut costs, integrate with flagship Jet Airways.

In a major restructuring exercise, JetLite, the Naresh Goyal group’s value carrier, will be trimming its 2,300 staff strength by roughly a third to cut costs and integrate some key functions with its flagship carrier Jet Airways.

Confirming this, Jet Airways’ CEO, Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur, said, “In the process of integrating the airlines, which is a must to keep JetLite afloat, there will be a shift of certain employees from JetLite to Jet and the workforce for both the airlines will be combined.”

He added that “the majority of the workforce — at least two-thirds — will be integrated with Jet” and others will get a voluntary separation scheme.

The company was not, however, ready to discuss details of the VSS for employees, but said it would be an “attractive one”.

A JetLite executive said the downsizing will take place in functions such as airport services, security, sales and marketing and HR.

The process of integrating the two airlines is to be completed by September 26, Jet Airways executives said.

The two brands, however, will remain separate and have different product offerings.

JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, has already more than halved its employee strength from the 4,500 it inherited from Air Sahara, the company that was bought in April 2007 for Rs 1,450 crore. The company made a loss of Rs 440 crore in 2007-8.

Meanwhile, Jet Airways has hired two expatriates to run the airline. Gulf Air’s Danny Darringer will take over as vice-president, sales, and Kazhak Air's Patrick Rastov is likely to take over as operations head.

JetLite’s former CEO, Finnish national Maunu von Lueders, quit the airlines after barely five months in office.

JetLite has a fleet of 24 Boeing 737s and corporate regional jets and has more than a 7 per cent domestic market share.