by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
NEW DELHI, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Employees of the debt-ridden Jet Airways, which stopped operations last week, are struggling hard to seek the revival of the grounded airline.
Apart from staging peaceful protests, the employees are meeting ministers demanding government intervention to help the airlines resume operations.
Following last week's announcement to suspend operations, thousands of employees including pilots, engineers, flight attendants and ground staff were left jobless.
The decision to shutdown operations for an indefinite period of time came after State Bank of India (SBI) on behalf of the consortium of Indian lenders informed the airline that they were unable to consider their request for interim funding.
The airline made unsuccessful efforts to get funding over the past several months.
The employees staged protests across the country, including New Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru, highlighting their woes in a bid to seek government intervention.
"We pay loads of tax. Don't get us under the axe," reads a placard in the hands of a protesting employee.
"We have dependents to feed, please don't let our 9W (acronym for Jet Airways) bleed," reads another placard.
The Lucknow-based employees of the airline wrote a letter to Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh urging him to save jobs of 22,000 employees besides other associated business.
"Such a big airline going down will leave a huge vacuum behind, and a national brand of international repute is about to collapse. Passengers are already facing the brunt of it and are stranded all over the world," reads the letter.
Jet Airways was once India's biggest private airline.
"Why is government watching the closure of Jet Airways as a mute spectator," said Vandana, an employee. "Isn't it important for the government to intervene at this juncture and save future of the people associated with the airline. We are not only employees, we have families dependent on us."
Like Vandana, many others say the grounding of the airline has pushed them to the wall.
"We are facing a lot of stress and depression. Not only the employees but their entire families are suffering from stress and trauma because of the decision," said Amit, another employee. "We are doomed."
Prior to suspending their operations, the pilots, ground staff and vendors of Jet Airways were grappling with pending salaries. The airline has accumulated a debt of 1.14 billion U.S. dollars.
Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube in an interview to a local news channel said they were in the process of reviving the airline.
"I will leave no stone unturned and give it my very best to resurrect Jet Airways in the interest of all our employees, travelers and the nation," Dube said.
