Thursday, October 16, 2008

No lay-offs in Kingfisher this year: Mallya

Amidst his new ally Naresh Goel announcing 1900 lay-offs from Jet Airways to cut costs, business tycoon Vijay Mallya on Wednesday night said there would be no pink slips given to Kingfisher employees.

“As of now, Kingfisher has decided against any job cuts,” Mallya told reporters. There were speculations that atleast 300 jobs would be axed from the company roster.

To Kingfisher Vice Chairman and former chief of Air Deccan Captain GR Gopinath’s veiled offer of buy-back the merged Deccan, Mallya said the airlines was not on sale. Gopinath started the concept of low cost carrier with Air Deccan but in May 2007 Kingfisher's Mallya bought 26% stake in Deccan for Rs 550 crore. He had said he would buy the airlines if the owners could not run it in low cost.

Mallya said that Kingfisher did not have surplus staff to retrench, but would review the situation next year. “If there are flight cuts next year, the situation could change,” he said. He added they were ‘an over-taxed industry’.

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