Coronavirus impact: GoAir asks employees to go on leave without pay; Spicejet engineers too

GoAir, which like its peers had suspended flights since the beginning of the lockdown on March 25, had also let off its expat pilots.

Moneycontrol reached out to representatives of the airline. However, there was no reply.

The staff were informed about the latest step to conserve costs on April 18, in a letter from a senior human resources executive.

"The lockdown has been further extended to May 03 and with this extension our fleet continues to be completely grounded. Hence we are constrained to request you to proceed on Leave Without Pay. Your Leave Without Pay comes into effect from March 25, 2020, till May 3, 2020," the mail said. Moneycontrol has seen a copy of the letter.

"We are hopeful that skies will open from May 04, 2020, and will resume operations in a phased manner," added the communication.

The cost cutting measure come into effect even as Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri advised airlines to open bookings only after the government takes a decision on starting domestic and international commercial passenger flight services.

Spicejet statement

Responding to a story that said the airline will sent those staff with monthly pay higher than Rs 50,000, Spicejet clarified that the move is limited to it's engineering department.

 "It is clarified that no company-wide decision has been taken on the issue of salary cuts or leave without pay at SpiceJet for the month of April 2020. A limited number of staff from the engineering team has been put on leave without pay for a month each on rotational basis, the airline said in a statement.

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