Coronavirus impact: SpiceJet says pilots will not get salaries for April, May; cargo flight staff will be paid

New Delhi: SpiceJet on Wednesday told its pilots that they will not be paid salaries for April and May, and said those who have been operating cargo flights will get paid for “block hours flown”. SpiceJet’s flight operations chief Gurcharan Arora told pilots through an email that “as of today, 16 percent of our aircraft and 20 percent of our pilots are flying”.

.@flyspicejet Chief of Flight Ops writes to pilots on salary cuts, says pilots won't get salaries for April, May, sources say.

SpiceJet to pay salaries to pilots who flew cargo flights for block hours flown pic.twitter.com/mF4ydGLpFy

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 29, 2020

“We are doing this by flying our five cargo aircraft and also flying more ‘cargo on seat’ on our passenger aircraft,” he said. The budget carrier has a total of 116 passenger planes and five freight aircraft in its fleet. Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets India has been under lockdown since 25 March to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended. Arora told pilots: “We will not be getting any salary for April and May 2020. Those of us who have been flying cargo, will get paid for the block hours flown.” Block hours is the duration of a pilot operating the flight. The email, which has been accessed by PTI, stated: “Over the coming weeks, we intend to increase the number of aircraft flying (cargo+cargo on seat) to more than 50 percent and the number of pilots flying to 100 percent.”