Aviation woes: In Round 2, IndiGo cuts salaries up to 35%

"As part of our ongoing efforts to adjust our cost structure down in line with reduced revenues, I am afraid we need to take deeper pay cuts for ourselves. To cushion the impact among lower- paid employees this time around, we will increase the pay cut percentage only among the employees at the very top of the pay pyramid " the airline CEO Dutta told employees in internal communication.

New Delhi: IndiGo, India's largest private airlines, will implement another round of deeper pay cuts for its senior staff, with CEO Ronojoy Dutta's salary reducing by 35 per cent.

"As part of our ongoing efforts to adjust our cost structure down in line with reduced revenues, I am afraid we need to take deeper pay cuts for ourselves. To cushion the impact among lower-paid employees this time around, we will increase the pay cut percentage only among the employees at the very top of the pay pyramid " the airline CEO Dutta told employees in internal communication.

The increased pay cut will be in effect from September 1 and pay for all other employees will remain as per May announcement.

As per the internal communication, CEO is taking a cut of 35 per cent, senior vice presidents have been asked to take a 30 per cent pay cut while pilots' pay cut has been hiked to 28 per cent. The vice presidents and assistant vice presidents have been asked to take a 15 percent cut.

This will be the second round of pay cut by the budget carrier IndiGo as the aviation sector is reeling under the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, IndiGo had announced packets for its employees under a limited, graded leave without program for the months of May, June and July.

All the airlines such as SpiceJet, Air India, GoAir and Vistara, have either cut salaries or have sent their employees on leave without pay.

India had suspended all scheduled domestic and international passenger flights on March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. During this period, hundreds of airlines were grounded.

After nearly two months, domestic flights in India started operating in a calibrated manner from May 25 and the airlines have been facing a severe cash crunch due to the disruption caused by Covid-19 outbreak.