Jet Airways pilots look to join SpiceJet, IndiGo pilots see injustice

The harried pilots of crisis-ridden Jet Airways, which is on the brink of closing operations, have now approached SpiceJet as job seekers.

Jet Airways pilots had earlier been welcomed by IndiGo with compensation for their pending salaries and other advantages. IndiGo’s original pilots remained mute spectators. Eventually, they voiced their protest. In IndiGo, this led to murmurs of uneasiness within IndiGo’s pilots. IndiGo did purchase a number of additional airplanes, but it forgot to enhance its manpower especially in the critical areas, ie., operations and engineering where highly skilled personnel are needed. IndiGo became the largest airline in India but it faced acute shortage of labour because it had not done its homework well. As a thumb rule, at least two cadets could have been trained and groomed under one senior pro. Given the number of planes at its disposal, given the hours of flight it undertakes, IndiGo could have produced a battery of young pilots during the last ten years or so. Such a rich pool of talent could have served not only IndiGo but other airlines of the world too.

Although, shortage of manpower in non-critical areas can be somehow managed, shortage of cockpit crew is the one which can not be tolerated. This finally leads to cancellation of hundreds of flights. This has been IndiGo’s experience last month.

According to IndiGo, all job offers are in line with its current terms and conditions.

But IndiGo pilots differ. They have called the move as “injustice” and “unacceptable”:

• IndiGo Management takes us lightly.
• Offer to Jet Airways pilots is sheer injustice to us
• Jet Airways pilots are being offered a two-month bonus along with same designation-salary
• They have also been allowed to choose their operational base.

“The management is saying it is not bonus but it is compensation for their (Jet pilots) delayed salaries. Are we also not entitled to similar bonuses?” IndiGo pilots ask.

Also, Jet pilots are joining with designation protection. So, basically if a non-type-rated examiner is joining us, she/he will be joining with a pay protection of the IndiGo examiner, pointed out the IndiGo pilots.

Alleging that the IndiGo pilots have not been given a hike since the last three-four years, the pilots say that after joining, the Jet pilots will again get a hike when Indigo revises the salaries of its existing pilots.

Also Read: Jet Airways pilots seek Centre’s help to recover unpaid salaries

Jet pilots along with engineers and senior management have not been paid for more than three months now as the airline is facing its worst existential crisis since its inception a quarter of a century ago. It can be noted that pilots at Jet, being a full-service carrier, get higher pay and other benefits.

The Gurugram-based SpiceJet, which has all its 12 Boeing Max planes grounded following the crash of an Ethiopian Airline plane early this month, is looking to hire pilots for its expansion plans, and has also conducted walk-in interviews here.

Unlike IndiGo, which flies majorly Airbus 320s, SpiceJet has Boeing 737s in the fleet. On the other hand it can be noted that majority Jet Airways pilots are trained and type-rated for Boeing planes.

Also Read : Jet Airways gets another setback, unlikely to recover 

With no assurance on the payment of their pending salaries, Jet pilots had Tuesday warned that they would stop flying from April 1 if the management failed to provide clarity on the revival plan along with a deadline to clear their salary dues by March 31.

Also Read: Banks get ready to put in extra money in debt-laden Jet Airways

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Banks get ready to put in extra money in debt-laden Jet Airways

A day after Etihad walked out of the prolonged bank-led resolution plan for Jet Airways, lenders got into action to chalk out a plan B. Senior bank executives worked the phones and logged on to video-conferencing in a move to rescue Jet, which has a debt pile of about Rs 8,000 crore and is left with just half of its original fleet due to non-payment of dues to lessors.

Switching to a damage-control mode, bankers and government officials claimed that Jet Airways wouldn’t fall even if Etihad refuses to back the resolution plan and exits. Instead, lenders would infuse additional funds to keep Jet flying, they said. An option that was discussed was that Etihad and Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal, who owns 51 per cent in the airline, could pledge their shares and, in return, lenders would put in more funds.

The move comes after Etihad told SBI, which leads the consortium of lenders proposing a resolution plan for Jet, that it would like to exit the airline and sell its 24 per cent stake in Jet and 50.1 per cent in Jet Privilege to them.

ALSO READ: Jet Airways gets another setback, unlikely to recover

Etihad is also learnt to have asked the SBI to take over the guarantee on the $140-million ECB loan, which Jet had taken from HSBC. Etihad had stood guarantee for the loan, which is coming up for repayment on March 27. Etihad CEO Tony Douglas is also believed to have indicated that the company was willing to sell its stake in Jet to the banks at a discounted price of Rs 150 a share or at Rs 400 crore. It has also valued its equity holding in JPPL at around $600 million. An e mail query to Etihad did not elicit any response.

Despite the brave front put up by bankers and government officials trying to prevent an airline collapse so close to the Lok Sabha elections, the lenders’ meeting called at a short notice on Tuesday evening remained inconclusive. The discussion was all about who will pitch in with what in the suddenly changed scenario. With no consensus yet on how the additional burden would be shared by the lenders, another round of talks has been planned with the top management of banks. ‘’It’s a wait and watch situation and the picture would become clear in two days,’’ a source tracking the developments said.

ALSO READ: Jet Airways Nosedives Further, No Respite in Sight, 41 Planes Remain

A top government representative pointed out that while lenders would ideally want Jet and Etihad to put in more money, the largest state-owned lenders like SBI and Punjab National Bank could also infuse more. “The lenders have the option of pumping in money on behalf of the stakeholders if the latter pledge their shares,” he said. He added that the government was in favour of an Indian entity holding majority stake in Jet Airways. “Ideally, nobody would like Jet Airways to go into insolvency proceedings,”he said.

Banks, another source said, had held a meeting late evening on Monday too, to discuss ways to salvage the resolution plan. The lenders had earlier agreed that they would provide Rs 750 crore as interim financing and Rs 1,000 crore for fresh equity to revive Jet.

ALSO READ: Jet Airways pilots seek Centre’s help to recover unpaid salaries

As per the resolution plan, Goyal’s stake was to go down to 17.1 per cent from 51 per cent now. At present, only 1.5 per cent of Goyal’s shares are pledged and Jet has an agreement with PNB under which it has to take a no-objection certificate to sell its shares.

On its part, Etihad has been unwilling to pledge its shares from the very beginning. That’s the reason why Etihad’s draft memorandum of understanding with Goyal had put in a clause that the Abu Dhabi airline would not give any corporate guarantee or pledge its shares in Jet or JPPL. Also, it was again Jet which would pledge its remaining shares in JPPL to secure the $140 million loan from HSBC.

The nation must adopt new energy paradigms

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport recently experienced yet another sudden power outage resulting in delays for many travelers. It was the fourth outage in a year, but it was not related to Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) systems. It was caused by equipment that is not managed by Taipower.

Airports in many developed countries have their own cogeneration systems to guarantee a stable multisource power supply to protect the public’s rights and interests. For example, international airports in San Francisco and Los Angeles have cogeneration systems of different sizes.

In this situation, the power company is in effect a backup supplier of energy to the terminals, offering a second guarantee. In addition, emergency diesel-powered generators — which also exist at Taoyuan airport — provide a third guarantee, although they cannot be sustained for long periods and should be the last option.

This is the reason why a cogeneration system should be installed even if the power it generates is a bit more expensive.

Cogeneration systems have two other advantages. As they generate both heat and electricity, thermal efficiency can surpass 80 percent, making it one of the most efficient energy-saving solutions. This is also why many countries encourage and stipulate that power companies must purchase surplus energy generated by cogeneration systems as part of their cost avoidance policies. Taiwan is no exception.

The second advantage of a cogeneration system is that following the growing proportion of distributed energy resources, unstable solar and wind energy generation requires greater backup capacity, while cogeneration allows the flexible adjustment of the proportions of thermal and electric energy generation, making it one of the best backup systems.

This is why a developed country like Denmark estimates that cogeneration systems will continue to make up about 30 percent of total power generation capacity until 2030, while solar and wind generation will make up more than 50 percent and coal-fired generation will provide less than 20 percent.

This means that following Taiwan’s energy generation transformation toward green energy, a greater focus should be placed on the development of regional cogeneration systems and the construction of micro-grids that can operate independently and combine cogeneration with renewable energy sources.

It is worth noting that although there are more than 80 cogeneration systems in Taiwan, they all belong to the manufacturing industry and most are coal-fired. This is different from the situation in developed countries, where the main energy source is natural gas and the systems are used in the services and the manufacturing industries.

Furthermore, the vast majority of the liquefied natural gas that the nation imports is used by Taipower and private power plants for traditional power generation, which has a thermal efficiency of about 50 percent. This, unfortunately, is far less than at a cogeneration system.

The government should join the international trend toward green energy and energy savings, and pay more attention to developing a strategy for natural gas-fired cogeneration systems, which should be primarily used at service industry hubs or important buildings.

This would result in a stronger and more resilient energy system, facilitate flexible plans for a larger proportion of renewable energy generation and make stable low-carbon power supply in smart cities and communities a reality, thus guaranteeing the public’s right to use electricity.

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