The COVID-19-induced economic turbulence has led airline major IndiGo to decide to lay off 10 percent of its workforce. According to IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta, the company after carefully assessing and reviewing all possible scenarios, will require to bid "a painful adieu" to 10 per cent of its around 27,000-strong workforce.

"It is for the first time in the history of IndiGo that we have undertaken such a painful measure. This is indeed a very unfortunate turn of events from the optimistic growth trajectory we had carved out for ourselves just six months ago; but this pandemic has forced us to re-evaluate our best-laid plans.

"To help the impacted employees' tide over the uncertainties emanating from this decision, IndiGo has created a '6E Care package'," Dutta said in a note.

Dutta said the current pandemic has impacted many industries around the world, among which aviation has been one of the sectors that has been hit the hardest.

"Even now, IndiGo is flying only a small percentage of its full fleet of 250 airplanes. This has been one of the toughest decisions that we have had to take and we are ensuring that the transition process for the impacted employees is carried out seamlessly, professionally and with the utmost respect and compassion," he said.

"Right at the start of this crisis, IndiGo understood the gravity of the situation. For us, it was critical to minimise the impact of the pandemic on our employees, and in fact IndiGo was one of the few airlines globally which paid full salaries for the month of March and April, despite the disruption in business," Dutta added.

Subsequently, the airline instituted a number of measures such as pay cuts, leave without pay and various other costs; but unfortunately, these cost savings were clearly not enough to offset the decline in revenues.

"And from where things stand currently, it is impossible for our company to fly through this economic storm without making some sacrifices, in order to sustain our business operations," he said.(IANS)