Jet Gags Employees, Says "Every Newspaper Will Try And Carry Story Daily"

A day after debt-laden Jet Airways stopped its operations indefinitely, the airline asked its worried employees to not speak to the media about the crisis. The deep turbulence has put 20,000 jobs at stake and has left many of them seeking jobs at other airlines with pay cuts.

"We are currently at a critical stage of our bid process that is being led by our lenders. We urge you to refrain from engaging with the media and let the task of interaction with external stakeholders (especially the media) be restricted to our colleagues at corporate communication team," the corporate communication team of Jet Airways wrote in an e-mail to its employees on Thursday evening.

The gag order came after staff from across departments, including engineering, maintenance, guest relations and security, participated in the demonstrations in Mumbai and Delhi.

"Our airline is beloved by all and every newspaper will try and carry a Jet Airways story daily," the e-mail read.

Jet Airways employees protested outside the carrier's Mumbai headquarters on Thursday to seek answers from the management on how they plan to pay the staff. The group, standing in a loose human chain, blocked the gate of the airline's office.

Employees also protested at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to voice their concerns and appeal to the government to intervene for revival of the company. 

The airline's chief executive Vinay Dube had on Wednesday said the airline did not have an "answer" at present on the fate of its employees during the on-going stake sale process.The senior management, pilots and engineers have not be been paid since January while the other categories of employees have also not received their March salaries.

The last Jet Airways flight flew on Wednesday from Amritsar to Mumbai before the curtain was drawn for India's oldest private airline.

After flying for 25 years, Jet Airways on Wednesday announced temporary grounding of operations after its lenders declined a Rs 900-crore lifeline.

Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal quit as chairman of the carrier last month under a debt resolution plan that saw lenders taking control of the airline.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)