When 50 cabin crew staff of Jet Airways received their termination letters recently, the reaction of the carrier’s other staff members was not as agitated as it had been when the airline had sacked 850 cabin crew staff in October last year. In fact, most of the airhostesses and flight stewards, who spoke to Newsline on condition of anonymity, said that they have given up and most of them are “patiently waiting for their turn to face the axe.”

This subtle reaction comes across as an extreme opposite of what the nation saw for two full days on television in October last year, when these smartly-dressed professionals in their yellow coats took to the streets after the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline terminated contracts of over 850 cabin crew staff as a cost cutting measure.

“You have to do it,” was the underlying message circulated among everybody, said a Jet airhostess. “I have stopped taking any more stress as I know this time it will happen and nothing can stop it. After all, we cannot be screaming around for help all the time,” she added. “The company is in an extremely bad shape and they have made it aptly clear that they want us to leave, so why stay? After all, even we have some self-respect,” said another airhostess, who has already started looking for another job. “We’re young and therefore it should not be very difficult for us to get another job, even if it’s outside the aviation industry,” she added.

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