Indian airline IndiGo is making 10% of staff redundant as in a bid to survive the collapse in demand for flights due to Covid-19.
Ronojoy Dutta, chief executive of the low-cost carrier, revealed the cuts in a letter yesterday.
He said: “The current pandemic has impacted many industries around the world, amongst which aviation has been one of the sectors that has been impacted the hardest. Even now, IndiGo is flying only a small percentage of its full fleet of 250 airplanes.”
The carrier has already implemented pay cuts, unpaid leave and other cost-cutting measures but more are needed, he said.
“It is impossible for our company to fly through this economic storm without making some sacrifices, in order to sustain our business operations,” he wrote.
“Therefore, after carefully assessing and reviewing all possible scenarios, it is clear that we will need to bid a painful adieu to 10% of our workforce. It is for the first time in the history of IndiGo that we have undertaken such a painful measure.
“This is indeed a very unfortunate turn of events from the optimistic growth trajectory we had carved out for ourselves just six months ago; but this pandemic has forced us to re-evaluate our best laid plans.”
IndiGo is India’s largest passenger airline with a market share of 48.9%.
The BBC said it employs about 24,000 people which means about 2,400 jobs are on the line.