Pilots of cash-strapped Jet Airways have appealed to State Bank of India (SBI) to release funds worth Rs 1500 crore for airline’s survival, trade union National Aviator's Guild said on Monday. The guild, which has around 1,100 pilots as its members, has also asked PM Narendra Modi to help in saving 20,000 jobs, news agency PTI reported.
The appeal comes a day after the guild deferred its "no flying" call to a later date from Monday. On Sunday, the guild, decided to stop flying from April 15 in protest against non-payment of salaries since March.
However, in a late evening communication to its members, the pilots body announced postponement of its "no pay no work" call for the second time in less than two weeks, saying it wanted to give more time to the company which is struggling to survive due to severe paucity of cash.
The airline's pilots along with engineers and senior staff were last paid for December 2018. This apart, the airline has also defaulted on the March salary of other categories of employees as well.
Last month, an SBI-led consortium of lenders had taken management control of the airline post a debt-recast deal, following which the lenders had proposed to infuse as much as Rs 1,500 crore to the carrier to keep it afloat till the time it gets an investor.
(With inputs from agencies)
