IndiGo announces pay cut for senior employees as aviation industry hit by coronavirus; CEO takes 25% cut

New Delhi: IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta announced on Thursday that the airline was instituting pay cuts for senior employees and he would himself take the highest cut of 25 percent amid the novel coronavirus pandemic that has hit the aviation industry hard. “With the precipitous drop in revenues, the very survival of the airline industry is now at stake,” Dutta said in his email to employees. “We have to pay careful attention to our cash flow so that we do not run out of cash.”

#JustIn | @IndiGo6E announces a cut in pay of all its employees in wake of the #COVID2019, management writes a letter to its employees. Here are some details pic.twitter.com/b1keqVGbaO

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) March 19, 2020

“With a great deal of reluctance and a deep sense of regret, we are therefore instituting pay cuts for all employees, excluding Bands A and B, starting 1 April, 2020,” the chief executive officer said. Band A and B are the lowest brackets in salary class, where most of the employees are. “I am personally taking a 25 percent pay cut, SVPs (senior vice presidents) and above are taking 20 percent, VPs (vice presidents) and cockpit crew are taking a 15 percent pay cut, AVPs (assistant vice presidents), Bands D along with cabin crew will take 10 percent and Band Cs five percent,” Dutta noted. The CEO said he knew how hard it was for families to take a cut in “take-home pay”.