Jet Airways seeks month's time to clear Rs 100 cr arrears of pilots

Jet Airways today sought a month's time to clear about Rs 100 crore worth of salary arrears of its pilots, who have been expressing their ire against the delay in making the payment, airline sources said.

The management's plea came during an almost six-hour meeting with representatives of pilots at the airline's headquarters here this afternoon, the sources said.

The meeting was attended by chief executive-designate Cramer Ball and other officials while the pilots' representatives came under the banner of National Aviators Guild (NAG) which acts as an interface between the pilots and the management.

The pilots, who had a week ago warned of an agitation if the management did not come out with a concrete repayment plan by today, are learnt to have said they would "look into" the management's proposal for a one month delay.

"At today's meeting, the management requested the pilots to grant it one month time on the issue (payment of salary arrears). The pilots, however, responded by saying that they will look into the request after consulting with their other colleagues," the sources told PTI here.

A text message sent to airline spokespersons for confirmation did not yield any response a the time of filing the copy.

Jet Airways, in which the Gulf carrier Etihad is a strategic partner with 24 per cent stake, has 1,100 pilots on its rolls. Its pilots had struck work for several weeks in 2009 against sacking of two of their colleagues for forming a union.

Of the 1,100 pilots on the rolls, as many as 600 are commanders and the rest first officers.

According to the pilots, the company owes around Rs 15 lakh to each commander and Rs 7 lakh to each co-pilot in arrears. The arrears are for FY11 and FY12, while the airline has already cleared those for FY13.