KUALA LUMPUR: The chief executive officer of troubled Rayani Air has fired back at staff who announced plans to wrest control of the company from him, suggesting that they "start their own airline if they are so smart".

However, Ravi Alagendrran (pic), who has been accused of not paying his 400 staff their salary as well as their Socso and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions, ensured that his workers would get their money, claiming he was finalising a deal with an investor to sell a 51% share in the airline.

"Yes, I will pay them. I have investors. Look at them (the staff), you think they can bring in investors?

"They are following their emotions like children," Ravi told The Star in a phone interview, adding that he was planning to retrench half the workforce to make the company leaner.

"I am going to throw away all these people," a livid Ravi added.

He blamed his staff's strike for driving away investors and putting the airline in a financial lurch.

On Friday, staff from Rayani Air's operations and engineering division announced that they were in talks with several investors to buy majority shares in the airline from Ravi, saying that they did not want the CEO helming the company.

They also threatened legal action against Ravi if their salaries for March and their Socso and EPF contributions were not paid.

The protest was led by Rayani Air's KLIA 2 station manager Zulkalnain Azdan, who also accused Ravi of having no aviation experience and for making racist remarks against the staff.

In response, Ravi claimed that the station manager was originally hired as a cleaner for his planes, but he had been forced to promote Zulkalnain to station manager by staff over supposed racial reasons.

The Transport Ministry slapped Rayani with a provisional suspension notice for contravening conditions of its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) earlier this month.

This comes after airline announced that it would suspend operations effective immediately as part of the company's restructuring plan.