Jet Airways employees on Tuesday staged a protest outside the Safdarjung Airport here, seeking government's intervention to solve the crisis facing the airline.
The protesting employees were demanding the intervention of government in securing the future of the airline company.
Many employees carried placards on which "Save Jet Airways", "Hear our cry, Let 9W fly" and "We have dependent to feed, please don't let our 9W bleed" was written to draw the attention of the government.
Pooja, a customer service employee, who had been working with Jet Airways for the past 11 years, said she had her family loans, her parents and many other co-dependents to look after. She added meeting these expenses was becoming difficult with each passing day considering they had not got their salaries since February.
"We have not got our salaries from February. I personally have a lot of burden on me, being the sole bread earner in my family. There are many more like me amongst the 22,000 employees. We have many demands but first and foremost we want the government to restart our airlines. The lives of employees, their families and the ones who are dependent on us are in peril," Pooja told reporters here.
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Rishi Sehgal, a ground service employee who had worked for 22 years with Jet said the protests will continue till the time their demands were met. He also questioned the Chairman of the company and SBI for not clarifying the position and the measures being taken which have led to hopelessness amongst the employees.
"Till our jobs come back we will not stop the protests. These are not even protests but a collective request of all the employees. Our Chairman should have come forward to stand by us, an email from him was simply not enough he should have talked to us, giving us some hope. SBI too is not saying anything to us clearly. All the information we are getting is through news, we need some credibility," Sehgal told reporters.
Meanwhile, Darwin Platform Group of Companies, which recently shot into prominence for its interest in taking stakes in Jet Airways with an infusion of Rs 14,000 crore, has geared up to foray into the Indian aviation sector.
"Our main priority is to save the airline and thousands of employees who are jobless and in pain. I feel sad for thousands of Jet Airways employees and their family members. But soon, I believe Jet Airways will be back in the air," its Chairman Ajay Harinath Singh told ANI.
Meanwhile, the Aviation Ministry said that national carrier Air India will be given preference during the allocation of international slots of grounded Jet Airways.
The ministry has already issued a couple of overseas slots to Air India, according to sources.
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