Vietnam's Bamboo Airways struggling to pay pilot wages; some depart - sources

Some pilots have left Vietnam's restructuring Bamboo Airways in the last two months after late payments in salaries, according to two people familiar with the matter. About 30 foreign pilots departed during that time, more than 10% of the airline's total pilot staff in June, according to one of the people, who declined to be identified as the information was not public. A second person said some pilots had recently quit and others were dismissed. Embattled Bamboo, Vietnam's No. 3 airline, said in a statement to Reuters that it has undertaken drastic restructuring and those efforts encompass its route network, fleet and human resources. "Bamboo Airways has reduced a number of pilot personnel recently to serve this goal," the statement said, denying that late payments of salaries were the reason behind the departures. It did not respond to questions about how many pilots have left. Many staff at Bamboo have sometimes had to face delays in salary payments but this had not, until recently, affected foreign pilots who make up a large majority of the airline's pilot staff, the sources said. Messages seen by Reuters from an internal company chat forum that management uses to communicate with foreign pilots show some salary payments have been late. An Aug. 21 message from a company representative in the forum told foreign pilots they would have received on that day 35% of their monthly salary that had been due a week earlier, and they would be informed about the remainder when there was more information.<br/>