IndiGo trims employees’ salary due to coronavirus, CEO takes 25% pay cut

IndiGo being hit hard by coronavirus, has announced that it will cut salaries of senior employees. IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta will himself take a 25% cut in salary, said Senior Vice Presidents and above are taking a 20% pay cut while Vice Presidents and cockpit crew are taking a 15% pay cut.

With precipitous drop in revenues, the very survival of airline industry is now at stake, Dutta said while announcing the pay cut. Dutta said that they have to pay careful attention to their cash flow so that they do not run out of cash. He also added that he knew how hard it was for families to take a cut in "take-home pay".

Band A and B are the lowest brackets in salary class, where most of the employees are. "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 April 1, 2020," the Chief Executive Officer said. IndiGo's Flight Operations Chief Ashim Mitra had written an email to pilots saying that the economic environment has deteriorated significantly and no airline is insulated from this severe downturn.

With countries sealing their borders partially or fully across the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, aviation sector has been hit extremely hard as most airlines globally have drastically curtailed their flight operations. Another budget airline GoAir has already terminated contracts of expat pilots amid curtailed operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.