Jet Airways offers pilots Rs 60 cr of wage arrears in March

Jet Airways on Wednesday offered to pay Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) of wage dues to its 1,000 pilots in March. The airline, in which Abu Dhabi’s Etihad has a 24 per cent stake, has a monthly wage bill of Rs 176 crore.

In return, the National Aviator’s Guild has agreed to stop go-slow protests that started a week ago after the airline halved pilots’ offs. Jet Airways owes Rs 120 crore in wage dues to pilots over three years, sources in the company said.

While the first half is likely to be cleared next month, the schedule for the rest is yet to be finalised.

An email by D Balaraman, president, Guild, to pilots on Thursday said, “We had a marathon meeting with the Jet chairman (Naresh Goyal).

We have successfully completed the discussion on dues and will pass the details to you.

“In view of the above, the directive on flight safety issued by us is in suspension till further notice.” The directive refers to the pilots’ refusal of any last-minute flights to help the airline facing a shortage of pilots.

The pilots’ protests had begun when Jet on January 21 halved the offs to one day after every six days of work. This rule, which affects pilots on Boeing 737s, is effective from February 1 and will be reviewed before June 30. A Jet spokesperson declined to comment.

“The pilots’ protests have led to delays, 10 to 20 flights are being delayed every day,” a Jet pilot said. The guild has decided to improve pilot productivity in anticipation that two-day offs will be restored. A team under Captain Samir Patel will look at options such as pilots volunteering on off days with the “possibility of a monetary benefit”.

An office-bearer for the guild said aviation rules required airlines to provide two nights off to pilots after six nights of work.

“We are working with the management for higher productivity on the six wo