Jet Airways will send nearly one-third of its employees on leave without pay or slash their salaries by up to 50%, reported The Times of India quoting sources. 

The carrier, which suspended operations in 2019 and remained grounded for three years, was granted licence to resume commercial flights by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in May this year.

According to some employees of the airline, the 50% salary cuts will start taking effect from December 1.

The airline management, meanwhile, said that two-thirds of the staff will not be impacted by the move. For the remaining one-third of the employees, it added, their pay will be reduced temporarily.

The management said that only a small portion of the staff will be given leave without pay and that no employee was being laid off, the report added.

The Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), current promoters of Jet Airways, recently said that it had not breached any terms of the insolvency and might have to take difficult decisions to manage cashflow.

“…while we await the handover of the company as per the NCLT process, the longer-than-expected time being taken for the same may result in some difficult but necessary near-term decisions to manage our cashflows to secure the future while the airline is still not in our possession,” the consortium said in a statement.

The insolvency resolution process of Jet Airways started in June 2019 after its then-promoters failed to provide liquidity.

While JKC’s resolution plan was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) last year, the airline is yet to resume operations even after obtaining the air operator certificate (AOC).

In the statement, the consortium also said that it has deposited Rs 150 crore as required by the court-approved resolution plan and will invest the remaining amount “only after the next steps of NCLT are fulfilled in terms of handover of the company to us”.