Naresh Goyal announced reinstatement of all sacked 1,900 Jet employees.
“Decision is not under any political pressure”, said Naresh Goyal.
“Nobody including my wife is involved, all the employees are my family, I cannot see tears in their eyes”, he said.
He also said, “I have nothing to do with Kingfisher, the decision does not relate with alliance”.
Distancing from the decision that provoked sharp protest from the employees and some political parties, Goyal said, “Management had decided it and when I read about it I saw tears in their eyes, I decided on my own to call them back.
“There is no internal or external pressure…as a family we will decide how to fly and keep the airline offload,” Goyal said.
Asked about Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thakre’s threat that he would not allow Jet to fly from Mumbai, Goyal said that I have not talked to anybody.
“It does not matter what anybody says, I have not even asked my wife,” an emotionally choked Goyal said.
Claiming that he did not know about day to day decisions of the management which may have taken the call because of economic condition, Goyal said that sacking has nothing to do with Kingfisher and its alliance was all together a different issue.
“Alliance with Kingfisher is a synergy and a separate issue… Steering group has been constituted and is working for the rationalisation of routes and other things,” he said.
Requesting journalists not to ask any more question as he was emotionally disturbed “distraught”, he said “My daughter is 19 years old…. They (sacked employees) are 20 or so… I have gone through this…I cannot see their trauma and agony”.
Day after the alliance with Kingfisher, Jet Airways had announced sacking of 1,900 probationary and temporary workers to overcome the slowdown that hit the aviation sector as a result of which it was suffering daily losses of Rs 10 crore.