Jet Airways issues statement over cancellation of flights, refutes reports on 'pilot non-cooperation'

A day after Jet Airways cancelled at least 14 flights to various destinations, the Indian international airline on Monday issued a statement rubbishing reports of differences with staff, adding that the company continues to enjoy the complete support and cooperation of all its employees. Speculations had been rife that the private career, controlled by Naresh Goyal has been facing a shortage of pilots since August and has not hired new ones due to a severe cash crunch. The airline, however, in the statement, said that the flights were cancelled due to an “unforeseen operational circumstance, and not pilot non-cooperation”.

Issuing a statement over the inconvenience, a Jet Airways spokesperson said, "The Company continues to enjoy the complete support and cooperation of all its employees, including pilots and engineers, individually and through their respective representative bodies, who have extended their solidarity and full support to the airline. The airline would like to reiterate that the reason for the cancellations of December 2 flights was due to an unforeseen operational circumstance, and not pilot non-cooperation, as is being unduly speculated".

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"Jet Airways has a transparent and open culture and employees as well as the management regularly engages through various forums to discuss and resolve matters of mutual concern via internal, defined, consultative processes. The management is in regular dialogue with the pilots and other teams to discuss and resolve on-going issues including disbursement of salaries. As stated earlier, Jet Airways is committed to meet its obligations and has been progressively addressing this issue with the employees," the statement read.

"Guests of the affected flights were duly informed about their flight status via SMS alerts. In accordance with regulatory policy, guests have been re-accommodated and or compensated," it added.

"The Company continues to have adequate pilots and runs a safe and reliable scheduled operation with rising on-time performance. The airline regrets the inconvenience caused to its guests," Jet Airways concluded.

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Sources, however, said that the private carrier has been defaulting on salary disbursement to its senior management and has partially paid to these staff for September while the full salaries of October and November remain unpaid.