SpiceJet freezes top mgmt salaries, to hire 60 pilots

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet will not hikesalaries of its top management in the next fiscal as part of itsmeasures to tide over turbulent times in the aviation sector, although it plans to hire up to 60 pilots within 12 months.

The airline also said it intends to start international flights once it becomes eligible to fly overseas by May 2010.

"We have frozen the salaries (hikes) of management-level executives for the next fiscal," SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal told PTI. He said the carrier employs a total of 2,300 people but declined to give the number of people who would be impacted by the salary hike freeze.

Commenting on overseas plans, Aggarwal said the carrier is mainly looking at destinations in SAARC countries like Kathmandu, Colombo and South-East Asian nations including Thailand. The airline will evaluate the markets foreign destinations it can serve.

However, he also said the carrier was not looking at long-haul flights. "We have no desire to fly to the US or the UK."

SpiceJet will follow the same low-cost model for the international routes. "We will be using the same type of aircraft that we currently have to fly overseas," he said.

The carrier presently has a fleet of 19 Boeing 737 airplanes. By March 2011, the Delhi-based airline would take delivery of five more planes.