MUMBAI: It was a night of high drama for India’s aviation industry. Bowing to the considerable political backlash, an emotional Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways, announced the rescinding of the decision to sack 1,900 employees.

Mr Goyal announced the decision at a hurriedly convened press conference at the company’s Mumbai headquarters at around 11.30 PM on Thursday night. Mr Goyal flew in from Hyderabad, and headed straight for the press conference. While 800 probationers had been handed pink slips, 1,100 more were likely to face the axe in the next few days, before Mr Goyal’s late night announcements.

Mr Goyal claimed that he was unaware of the reasons for the retrenchment of the employees. He said that the decision was that of the company’s top management, who were responding to the difficult economic situation which the company was facing, and that he himself wasn’t aware of the details.

Mr Goyal, who described himself as the father of the Jet family, said that he couldn’t sleep after seeing the tears in the eyes of some of the sacked employees. “My conscience doesn’t allow me to look at the mere economics only. I know that these are difficult times, but we will have to work together to find a way out of the crisis.” He went on to reiterate that the decision to take back the retrenched employees was entirely his, and that nobody had forced him to do so. “I didn’t consult anybody before taking the decision. Only my wife knew about it, and she’s here to lend moral support.” It is possible that the employees who had just escaped being sacked may have to accept some salary reductions, but this could not be confirmed. “Mr Goyal is like a god to us,” said one of the sacked cabin crew after the late night u-turn.

Despite Mr Goyal’s protestations of not being influenced by political pressure, such pressure had in fact been considerable ever since the company announced the decision to sack the employees. Apart from the threats from MNS chief Raj Thackeray to ground the airline, petroleum minister Murli Deora also criticised Jet’s decision. For good measure, Mr Deora termed Jet Airways as a defaulter because of its failure to pay its fuel bills. Mr Goyal who seemed to be under some stress, became emotional in the course of the press conference, which was telecast live.

Mr Goyal said that as head of the Jet family, he would like to see the smile back on the faces of his staffers, and asked them to resume duties on Friday morning. Despite the fact that the airline industry is going through rough times, he said that they would do whatever it takes to make Jet Airways a profitable company once again.

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