Air Vistara asks senior employees to go on leave for 4 days for May, June; third month in a row by airline

Air Vistara has asked senior employees to go on leave without pay for up to four days per month during May and June, according to a PTI report.

COVID-19 fallout: Vistara CEO says senior employees to go on leave without pay for up to 4 days per month in May and June

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 5, 2020

On being contacted, Air Vistara spokesperson told Firstpost the CEO’s mail was leaked and the company will release a statement soon.

Vistara CEO Leslie Thng on Tuesday announced that senior employees will have to go on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to four days per month in May and June as a measure to conserve the airline’s cash flow to tide over the difficulties faced by the aviation sector due to lockdowns across the world.

“With the latest lockdown extension until 17 May 2020, our operations continue to be suspended until the date, prolonging the period of no-revenues as well. Vistara is making every effort to save jobs of more than 4,000 of its people while conserving cash and pursuing to reduce operational expenditures, which includes staff costs," the spokesperson said to Firstpost.

Earlier, on 15 April, Thng had announced that senior employees will be going on compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 15-30 April.

On 27 March, the airline had also introduced compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 1-14 April for the same set of senior employees.

“For the month of May and June 2020, we will continue with compulsory no pay leave (CNPL) for all staff, except for pilots and staff in Level 1A and 1B, as follows: Staff in Level 4 and 5 to go on 4 days CNPL per month; Staff in Level 2 and 3 to go on 3 days CNPL per month; Staff in Level 1C to go on 1 day CNPL per month,” Thng said, according to PTI.

The CEO also stated that for May and June, the monthly base flying allowance for pilots has been reduced to 20 hours per month.

.@airvistara says senior staff to take compulsory no-pay leave of 1-4 days in May & June; no impact on 70% of co’s staff including cabin crew, other frontline & junior staff#coronavirus #lockdown pic.twitter.com/tNj2ER5eUl

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 5, 2020

The compulsory no-pay leave will affect around 1,200 employees in senior grades. The remaining 2,800 employees of the airline such as members of cabin crew and ground handling services will be unaffected.

Earlier, the base flying allowance was given to pilots for 70 hours per month.

However, the reduction in base flying allowance won’’t be applicable to trainee first officers.

The Vistara chief said in an email to employees, which has been accessed by PTI, that the airline is planning to restart flight operations in a phased manner whenever the government allows it to do so.

“With the announcement by the government of India on extending the lockdown, we continue to suspend all our domestic and international operations till May 3,2020 and this further impacted significantly on our cash flow with no revenue being generated over an extended period of time,” Thng said in April.

He said the airline has made “some progress” with a few of its key partners and suppliers in “reducing and/or deferring” some of its immediate operating expenditures.

Thng added the airline continues to pursue similar measures “aggressively” with other partners and suppliers.

He mentioned the airline has to take a “tough and difficult decision” on reducing staff costs with the objective to preserve jobs.

“Therefore, for the period April 15 to April 30 we will continue with Compulsory No Pay Leave (CNPL) for all staff, except for staff in Level 1A and 1B, as follows: Staff in Level 4 and 5 to go on three days CNPL, Staff in Level 2 and 3 to go on two days CNPL, Staff in Level 1C to go on one day CNPL,” he said.

The above CNPL is in addition to what Vistara had implemented for the period of 1-14 April, Thng noted.

“While the situation remains fluid, we are planning to resume flight operations in a phased manner whenever authorities allow us to do so,” the CEO stated.

“For the initial period, we may not be able to fully restore our suspended network and therefore our financials will continue to be adversely impacted. We must continue our focus on cutting expenditures, including continuing some of the measures that we have implemented in April,” he said.

Reacting on the decision, Vistara spokesperson said, “The extension of lockdown and suspension of our services till May 3, 2020 further impacts our cash flow significantly. As part of a number of steps we are taking to conserve cash and save costs, we had to make the difficult decision of further reducing our staff costs with the objective of preserving jobs.

“For the period between April 15-30, 2020, about 30 percent of Vistara’’s workforce will take compulsory no-pay leave of one to three days, depending on employment grades (three days for senior-most employees). This decision does not impact the remainder 70 percent of Vistara staff,” he added.