Bengaluru, Apr 22 (Agencies): Employees of the beleaguered Jet Airways airline in Bengaluru held a protest near Town Hall here, urging the central government to step in and save the airline.
Jet Airways had on April 17 announced temporary suspension of operations after it failed to receive emergency funds from lenders, leaving about 23,000 employees to face a bleak future.
Hundreds of Jet Airways employees including all ground handling staff, cabin crew members, administration and sales team took part in the protest dressed in their uniforms. They held up placards that read 'Hear our cry! Let 9W Fly', 'We have dependents to feed, Pls don't let our 9W Bleed' including the 'Save Jet Airways' and were yelling 'Save Jet Airways ' and 'Save our families.'
'We pay loads of tax, Don't get us under the Axe' and 'We have dependents to feed, please don't let our 9W bleed' read the messages in some of the placards.
Jet Airways engineer Milind Paradkar urged the government to infuse some funds to keep airline running.
"We want the government to infuse some funds instead of our aeroplanes being taken over by other airlines and being flown over by them," Paradkar told PTI.
He said there were rumours that somebody has shown willingness to take over Jet Airways, but the employees have no information who that is.
"The government has to be transparent. Presently employees are not being informed. They are in the dark," Paradkar said.
Other demonstrators said they had not received salaries for the past three months and had somehow been managing their family needs.
Some among them said they had previously worked with the now defunct Kingfisher AirlinesNSE -11.11 %.
On April 20, the employees had written to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking their intervention to recover outstanding dues as well as to expedite the process of emergency funds for the airline.
Meanwhile, an application was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for ensuring prompt resolution of refund dues to air passengers.
The applicant also stressed for speedy settlement of full refund of the amount to passengers who had booked on Jet Airways, and direction to accommodate them on alternative flights to ensure fair business practices.
Jet Airways on April 17 cancelled all flights, including its international flights temporarily after failing to secure emergency funds from its lenders, according to a statement by the airlines.
The embattled airline said it took this decision after State Bank of India
(SBI) on behalf of a consortium of Indian lenders informed that they were unable to consider its request for critical interim funding.