a major point which most of the posts have missed is the depreciation of the Indian rupee vs the USD . All expats are paid in dollars also all lease cost are in dollars . The recent fall in the rupee was one of the decision for 9W to let go of the expats ...Don't get misled by all the anti expat sentiment ..the jet management loves the expats...and the chairman n goyal is still in awe of the white skin man...the decision to let go of the expats was taken by also an expat the CEO Nikos ( who is Greek ).
Also the expats are proving very expensive for Indian carriers e.g their taxes are paid by the airlines or the fact due to commuting contracts they (expats) work only 2/3rds of the year or the fact DGCA takes a long time to process their permits .