Cash-strapped Jet Airways' management is meeting its group of lenders, led by the State Bank of India, on Monday. The lenders are meeting to decide whether to release crucial funds to keep the debt-ridden airline flying as it teeters on the brink of collapse.

Jet Airways' employees staged a protest in Mumbai demanding that the debt-laden airline be saved from shutting down. “Feel exploited… Going to other airlines at a salary cut… Impact on unskilled labour to be immense,” Jet Airways employees told NDTV.

Meanwhile, a report suggested that SpiceJet is hiring engineers and pilots at much lower pay than their current salaries at the financially-troubled Jet. Pilots from Jet Airways are being asked to take salary cuts of 25-30 per cent while engineers have been advised to settle at 50 per cent of their current pay package, news agency IANS reported.

The SBI-led consortium is trying to find a buyer for Jet, which was until recently the country's second-biggest airline by market share.

The meeting also assumes significance as it comes amid thousands of passengers being stranded after the cancellation of international flights in the last few days.

Hundreds of staff protested in Delhi and Mumbai over the weekend demanding to be paid and calling for the company to be rescued.

The airline has only seven jets left after dozens of others were seized by creditors in recent weeks. Pilots, engineers, and ground staff who have not been paid for three months and have said they will call for a strike if the banks do not inject emergency funds.

A deadline passed on Friday for prospective bidders to express an interest in acquiring a 75 per cent stake in the carrier.

The Prime Minister's Office had last Friday convened a crisis meeting on Friday evening.