IndiGo to return leave without pay system for senior staff

India’s low-cost airline IndiGo would reportedly bring back the leave without pay system for its senior employees. The move comes as India and its passenger traffic suffer from the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The air carrier reportedly told its senior employees that they would be subject to four-days per month leave without pay until September 2021. 

"The second wave has been difficult for all of us and has also resulted in reduction in passenger loads. As a result our commercial schedule had to be curtailed accordingly," Ashim Mittra, Senior Vice President Flight Operations at IndiGo, reportedly wrote in an email seen by Indian media outlet Business Standard. 

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In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, IndiGo used such a measure to tackle its costs. However, earlier in December 2020, the airline surrendered the leave without pay scheme within all company’s departments, as the airline had reached 70% of pre-COVID-19 operational levels at the time.