Travel and hotel booking company Ixigo will be cutting the salary of its entire staff as the organization struggles to cope with severe disruption in business due to the coronavirus. The senior members at the firm have agreed to take a 60 percent pay cut whereas the other 200 employees will take a 20-50 percent cut in their salaries. Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, the co-founders have decided to give up their entire salary until business returns to normal.
“We will reinstate the salaries as soon as the situation improves and we will also convert the accumulated salary deductions over the hardship period into equivalent ESOPs so that everyone benefits from future upside when the going gets better again,” said Bajpai.
The darkest hour for travel
Bajpai also explained that the present situation is “the darkest hour for travel.” Ixigo’s revenue surged by almost 50% in 2019 and burn rate dropped by almost 85% in the same year. The pay cuts have prevented any layoffs.
“What the travel industry (and indeed any industry in our nation) faces today is no less than a war. India and the entire world are facing a catastrophe imposed by a microscopic adversary that has forced us to be confined to our homes, taken away our freedom to socialize with others, to roam and travel freely and forced us to give up all those things that help us experience the world and make us more human,” he said.
Travel company MakeMyTrip was also forced to cut the salary of its top management. It may have to lay off nearly 400 employees in the near future if this disruption in business continues.
