Tata-owned Air India lays off 180 employees, specifies reason

Tata-owned Air India has laid off more than 180 non-flying employees in the recent weeks. It stated that the impacted staff were unable to utilise the voluntary retirement schemes (VRS) and re-skilling opportunities, PTI reported.

Since the takeover by Tata in January 2022, efforts have been made to streamline business model in the airline. As per a spokespersonm the employees in the non-flying functions have been assigned the roles on the basis of organisational needs and individual merit.

“A comprehensive process has been followed to assess the suitability of all employees over the past 18 months. During this phase, there have also been multiple Voluntary Retirement Schemes and reskilling opportunities offered to employees,” the spokesperson was quoted by PTI as saying.

The spokesperson said that one per cent of the employee base who were unable to utilise the VRS or re-skilling opportunities, had to part ways. The company said it is honouring all contractual obligations. Although the spokesperson did not mention the exact number of staff that were laid off, PTI reported that it was little more than 180 employees.

Two rounds of VRS were offered since the airline’s takeover by the Tata Group.

As part of the multi-year transformational initiative Vihaan.AI, the spokesperson said one key aspect is to build an agile and effective organisational structure in line with the business model to support expansion and ambition, the spokesperson added.

In another development, domestic air traffic rose 4.8 per cent on an annual basis to ₹1.26 crore last month, while more than 1.55 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays during the same period, PTI had reported.

In February, Air India’s market share rose to 12.8 per cent from 12.2 per cent while that of IndiGo marginally dipped to 60.1 per cent from 60.2 per cent in January.