NEW DELHI - INDIA'S largest private carrier Jet Airways is planning to slash the pay of its top 200 executives by 25-30 per cent as it battles soaring costs and an economic slowdown, a report said on Tuesday.

The salary cuts would affect staff earning more than a million rupees (S$30,706) a month, The Economic Times reported, citing an unnamed senior Jet Airways executive.

The report comes a week after Jet announced it was sacking 1,900 staff, only to rescind the decision because the company chairman said television images of fired employees had caused him sleepless nights.

India's airline sector - a potent symbol of the country's economic progress - is currently going through its 'worst ever' crisis, India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said last week.

The sector posted a combined loss of 938 million dollars in the fiscal year to March 2008 and analysts expect a two-billion dollar loss this year.

Jet posted a full-year loss to March of US$52 million and has defaulted on payment of fuel bills to the state-run Indian Oil. -- AFP