India's second largest carrier Jet Airways has been, in a lot of ways, dominating headlines for the last few days. After the buzz around reported pay cuts and likely layoffs, it is founder Naresh Goyal making news for apologising to the shareholders for their losses.
Goyal, on Thursday, August 9, spoke to the company's shareholders during the annual general meeting and said that he was unhappy as a lot of shareholders had lost their money amid Jet Airways' financial issues.
"Lots of shareholders have lost money, I feel guilty and embarrassed," the Press Trust of India quoted Goyal as saying. The airline has been witnessing tough times in the market with its stock plummeting 12 percent since July 2. The day of the AGM too wasn't good for the airline with its stocks touching a 52-week-low of Rs 286.95.
Goyal also spoke about the issues the full-service airline has been facing due to rising competition, adverse effect of foreign exchange and high fuel prices. If that wasn't enough Jet Airways has also been getting a lot of negative press in the last few days over reported pay cuts and layoffs.
It was said that the airline had asked its staff to take a pay cut and was mulling a stake sale. The percentage of the pay cut was to depend on the earnings of the employees and range from 5 percent for those who earn about Rs 12 lakh per annum to 25 percent for those who earn Rs 1 crore and more a year.
After this news broke, pilots of the airline who were said to be looking at an approximately 17 percent pay cut were livid and had blamed the management and its inefficiency for the losses.
Just when the airline refuted these claims saying there were no plans of a pay cut and that the reports were "factually incorrect" and "malicious," Jet was hit by another report, which said that the airline may lay off about 500 staffers. Sources told Financial Express that the airline may cut down the number of its ground personnel and added that it may also reorganise and trim the cabin crew on its Boeing and Airbus fleet.
Jet airways once again went and denied these claims and it now looks like the carrier has had enough of the negative press. During the AGM, Goyal also announced that the company would form a committee to improve the image of the brand. The airline's directors, Naseem Zaidi and Ashok Chawla, will chair the meetings of the executive committee, which will work towards improving the public perception of the brand.
Q1 results deferred
Amid all this, Jet Airways has also deferred the publication of results for the quarter ended June 30 citing that some processes are yet to be closed, reported LiveMint.
"This is to inform that the board of directors of the company, at its meeting held today, deferred the matter of consideration of the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended 30 June, 2018. It may be noted that the audit committee did not recommend the said financial results to the board for its approval, pending closure of certain matters," the company informed stock exchanges.
However, it is not known what these processes are and when the results will be declared.
