Indian airlines IndiGo became the latest carrier to reveal as to how hard the COVI-19 pandemic had hit them, forcing to lay off 10 per cent of its staff and to re-evaluate its “best-laid plans”, the airline’s CEO Ronojoy Dutta, said on Monday.
The country’s largest carrier explained how hard Covid-19 induced collapse in demand for flights followed by a slump in revenues had crashed it. Last month the airline had revealed that it would cut up to 40 billion rupees in cost.
As per reports, Ronojoy in a letter to IndiGo’s investors wrote: “It is impossible for our company to fly through this economic storm without making some sacrifices, to sustain our business operations.”
We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude and sincere thanks to all our people who have stood by us through thick and thin; and we are confident that both individually as well as collectively, we will emerge stronger out of this crisis. https://t.co/5oaytuCoXz pic.twitter.com/Z8AzhkjRXO
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) July 20, 2020
The layoffs at IndiGo come amid months of restrictions imposed by the government to curb the coronavirus outbreak, which has affected the civil aviation industry, hurt crude oil prices and forced businesses across sectors to trim operations.
The layoff in the Gurugram-based IndiGo airline, that employs around 24,000 people, which means some 2,400 jobs are on the line.
According to the company’s own figure, it holds a market share of 48.9 per cent as of March, 2020 and had been profitably operations for ten consecutive years.
The International Air Transport Association, which has 290 member airlines, in June had said revenues are expected drop to 419 billion dollars, down 50 per cent from 2019.
Airlines across the world have been hit hard by coronavirus-related travel restrictions. The latest announcement on airline job cuts comes as carriers around the globe are expected to see their worst year on record financially.
