In an e-mail to the staff, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said the company has “reasonable” level of advanced bookings for April and it was “anxious’ to fly again albeit with a reduced capacity.
“For those who don’t have to be working during this temporary suspension of operations, we will make no deduction of salaries or leaves,” Dutta added.
At an aviation ministry meeting last week, airlines had raised concerns of poor passenger load on domestic flights. With people largely avoiding travel, a large number of flights were being merged to fill planes.
Last week, IndiGo announced salary cuts of up to 25% across its workforce, following global airlines that have been forced to take similar steps in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis.
The extreme step, taken by India’s largest and richest airline, is likely to be followed by its smaller, financially weaker peers, senior industry executives said.
All international flights had already been stopped starting Monday morning.
The government had also cancelled train services, inter-state bus services, metro services and all other public transport services in an attempt to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the country that has infected almost 500 people in India — a number that could rise much higher over the next few days.
