April 15 deadline of Jet Airway pilots defer decision not to fly.

A major crisis at the struggling carrier Jet Airways was averted Sunday after its pilots' body, National Aviator's Guild (NAG), conceded till April 15 its call for halting operations.

The choice was taken at an open house meeting of NAG members which occurred in both Mumbai and Delhi on Sunday afternoon, NAG president Karan Chopra told reporters after the meeting lasted for about four hours.

The NAG, which professes to speak to around 1,100 of the 1,600 Jet Airways pilots, had announced prior that its members won't fly from April 1, unless their salary dues were cleared and clarity was provided on future payments by March 31.

Jet Airways has been defaulting on salary payments to pilots, engineers and senior management since August 2018.Its engineers have additionally reportedly threatened to prevent work from April 1 if their dues were not cleared by March 31.

"The all-out payout of pay for pilots, engineers and general managers and above-leve executives would be in the scope of Rs 320-350 crore for the period among January and March this year," Chopra said.

The NAG chief added that now the pilots are hoping that interim funding comes in and remaining dues get cleared. The NAG hopes that the interim funding continues, but it is not sure about the amount that will come in and how much will be the subsequent pay-out, Chopra stated.

"We urge for a meeting with SBI as early as possible. Ever since our last request, we haven't heard back from him (SBI chairman)," Chopra said. NAG General Secretary Tej Sood, in a letter to Kumar on March 25, had sought a meeting so that the pilots could get "an idea of the recovery roadmap".