MUMBAI, OCTOBER 15 The much-feared shakeout in the Indian aviation industry began to hit home on Wednesday as hundreds of employees of leading private airline Jet Airways took to the streets in protest after they were fired overnight, a move the company said was in the greater interest of regaining viability and security its economic health.

While the company said it had “released” 800 flight attendants recruited recently for Jet’s planned expansion programme, it added another 1,100 employees to that list later in the day and said they would include probationary and unconfirmed personnel in other areas including cockpit crew and management personnel.

Aviation industry sources said that this seemed like the beginning of a bloodletting in the sector and other airlines, including Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines which joined hands with Jet only two days ago to share facilities and cut costs, could follow suit. Kingfisher last month sacked 300 employees, many of them from Air Deccan with which it merged earlier this year. A top Kingfisher official, however, told The Indian Express that it was “very premature for anybody to jump to a conclusion that it would lay off employees just because Jet had done so”.

“It is an unfortunate decision, which all of us in the company regret but it is an attempt to save the company and the jobs of the remaining employees,” Jet Airways Executive Director B Saroj Dutta told a news conference at the airline’s headquarters in Mumbai.

Airlines around the world have been hit hard by rising oil prices and falling traffic, which has been compounded by the global financial crisis. While state-run Air-India posted a loss of over Rs 2,100 crore in 2007-08, Kingfisher’s losses were over Rs 1,000 crore and that of Jet over Rs 800 crore during the same period. Domestic traffic fell by 5.3 per cent in August to 29.2 lakh from 31 lakh in July.

But all that is little consolation to the hundreds of laid-off Jet employees who protested outside its office, many in their golden yellow uniforms who shouted slogans demanding their jobs back. “We’ve done nothing wrong,” said Mitesh Bhatt, who joined Jet in January and was about to complete his probation.

Similar sentiments were expressed by his colleagues who sounded helpless at the loss. “I joined Jet in April this year and did not give my first year BA exams as the joining date was earlier. They have played with our future as no airline will now take us,” said Vishav Preet from Amritsar.

The crisis took a political turn as the laid off employees marched to the office of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and sought the intervention of its chief Raj Thackeray. He did not disappoint them and threatened that no Jet flight would be allowed to operate if the employees were not reinstated.

“A delegation had come to meet us. We heard them and think that they should not have been laid off without any warning, explanation or compensation. We will be meeting the company officials tomorrow and the next course of action will be decided,” said MNS spokesman Nitin Sardesai.

Officials of the Shiv Sena’s labour wing, the Bhartiya Kamgar Sena, also held talks with the Jet Airways management through the day. “Of the 1,000 odd employees laid off by Jet airways, there were 578 from Mumbai. They were on probation and not permanent employees. Though they are not registered with our union, we have taken up their matter with the management. The management has given us in writing that these employees will be taken back on priority once they get more flights. We will, however, keep a vigil and have asked the management not to do the same with permanent employees,” said Vinayak Raut, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena secretary. The Left trade union CITU slammed the Jet move as “illegal and atrocious” and sought the government’s intervention. It demanded grounding of all flights.