Merely hours after deferring their no flying strike, the pilots of Jet Airways, on the 15th of April, appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for funds.
The pilots of Jet Airways were last paid their salaries in December 2018. Owing to this, the National Aviator’s Guild (NAG,) a body constituted by the pilots of Jet Airways, asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to release Rs. 1,500 crores worth of funds to stabilize one of India’s largest private airlines.
With regard to this, Adim Valiani, the Vice President of the NAG, said in a statement, “We would like to appeal SBI to release Rs. 1,500 crore funds for the airline to help it continue operations. We also appeal Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save 20,000 odd jobs at the airline (sic.)”
Post the announcement that the lenders and Jet Airways were meeting on the 15th of April to take a final call regarding the funds, the pilots and the staff deferred their strikes to a later date.
In March 2019, a consortium led by the SBI said it would release cash into the dying Jet Airways and keep the Company afloat till further investments. However, the money is yet to be disbursed.
Apart from the pilots, people from the other departments of Jet haven’t been paid since December. Furthermore, other teams working for Jet Airways also saw a default in salaries for the month of March this year.
Standing united for their employer, the 1,100 pilots who are a part of the Guild deferred their strike and are hoping to get some sort of relief from the BJP and the SBI.
While a call about how much cash was going to be infused was not taken on Friday, the SBI and Jet Airways are expected to make a final decision on the 15th of April.
Stay tuned for more updates.
