Mumbai: Jet Airways has decided to lay off 1,100 additional employees in the next few days, a top official said on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Jet said it has retrenched around 800 flight attendants and suspended its expansion programme, adding that it will also cut flights because of a slowdown in demand.

Jet Airway CEO Wolfgang Prock Schaeu and Executive Director B Saroj Datta held a press conference in Mumbai where they explained the company’s decision to terminate the services of company employees.

"It is an unfortunate decision, which all of us in the company regret but it is an attempt to save the company and the jobs of the remaining employees," said Dutta at the airline’s headquarters in Mumbai.

"A total of 1,900 people are being served separation notice. 800 have already been served notice. In the next few days the others will also be served notice. It is an attempt to save the jobs of remaining 11,100 employees," he said. The additional job cuts would be across all categories and departments.

He said the decision to terminate the employees had nothing to do with the alliance entered into with Kingfisher. "It (alliance) has nothing to do with the workforce of the companies. These are independent decisions of the two companies."

Kingfisher Airlines has laid-off nearly 300 jobs and may announce more cuts across the board in the coming days. The airline chief Vijay Mallya gave enough hints of it, saying the company would do whatever it takes to cut costs.

“It is a difficult decision but we had to take it,” said Schaeur, who promised that the sacked employees would be reinstated if the “situation improves”.

The process of termination is absolutely legal and in line with usual company process. Compensation to sacked employees would be paid according to the contract, the company said.

The company has spent money in training the retrenched employees and would like to take them back when market conditions are good, Dutta said.

“We do not see any political party involving themselves with this issue. They are rational people and would understand themselves how important this termination is,” said the two officials.

This statement maybe a hint at Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, who on Wednesday warned he wouldn’t allow Jet Airways flights to take off from Maharashtra if the airline does take back the services of 850 employees.

The decision on retrenchment resulted after Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines announced a code-sharing and operational alliance late Tuesday in a bid to cut costs and remain in the black with shared ground handling, flight crew and training of crew.

The airline also issued a statement saying the airline had been watching the situation for some time in the hope that it may turn around, but had reached a stage at which some hard decisions are inevitable.

"As a consequence, personnel hired for the expansion, probationers and unconfirmed personnel - who have been recently hired - will have to be released," the airline said.

"As a first step, around 800 flight attendants, recently recruited for the planned expansion programme, which has now been suspended, have been released. We are in the process of releasing personnel in other categories also."

The airline said the $6 billion Indian aviation industry was expected to lose $2 billion in 2008-09, with operations affected by high fuel prices, downturn in traffic and the global financial crisis.

Jet and Kingfisher, along with their acquired airlines, have a combined strength of 19,000 employees, a fleet of 189 aircraft serving 1,009 daily flights, of which 82 are on international routes.

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