New Delhi: SpiceJet has sent 80 pilots on leave without pay for three months on Tuesday as the distressed airline battles a liquidity crunch amid flight restrictions imposed by the aviation regulator.
“Forty pilots and 40 co-pilots flying Boeing 737s were sent on leave without pay starting Tuesday for three months, and were not given any reason for it,” an airline official said. “These pilots are majorly the ones who joined the airline recently,” another official said. Both declined to be named.
The pilots will remain eligible for all other employee benefits such as insurance benefits and employee leave travel during the furlough period, the airline said. It is a temporary measure to rationalise cost, it said.
