Crisis in aviation sector

The dramatic way in which the Jet Airways sacked its 1900 workers and reinstated them within 60 hours between Tuesday and late Thursday night brought back smiles to the aviation employees, but the episode does speak of a crisis of serious nature the industry is exposed to, in the wake of global recessionary scenario. The decision to reinstate all the 1900 pink-slipped probationers might have been under pressure from political and apolitical forces though the Jet Airways chairman, Naresh Goyal denied it. The Kingfisher which has a strategic alliance with Jet Airways had a month back retrenched 300 employees including crew members and is, perhaps, now looking ahead to go for a further cut in its salary cost since its chairman, Vijay Mallya was quoted as saying that airlines need to “cut flab and be more lean, mean and efficient” and that the company would “seek to return 14 aircrafts that could potentially be surplus to requirements.” On the other hand, the national carrier, Air India, has again devised a creative way of reducing its staff strength. Though not officially announcing any retrenchment, it is planning to ask some 15,000 employees of the total strength of 33,000 to go on leave for three to five years without pay and then join back the airline. It is certainly an articulated cover-up for retrenchment.

What is still now being ignored by the government is the potential danger that any such possible large scale retrenchment could trigger in the days to come. The financial bailout which the Aviation Minister Praful Patel called for was outrightly rejected by the rest of the union ministries. What is more disturbing is the fact that there is no dearth of anti-social elements now in society to misguide the young energy of the educated and talented class created in the industry has already made an impact all throughout the country including north-eastern region. It is not only that more than a thousand youngsters from this region work in different aviation companies employing around a lakh of people in the country. Apart from this, thousands of training institutes have sprung up in the length and breadth of the nation to prepare aspirants for aviation career. They are now a worried lot. Hence, some, bail-out package need be structured by the government in the way it is done to banking industry. What is of immediate necessity is that the union ministries and state governments lower tax rates and aviation fuel prices on the one hand and banks of both public and private sectors extend sufficient loan finance to remove the resource crunch faced by airlines at this juncture. source: assam tribune editorial