The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation has noted with concern that Kingfisher Airlines has not been sticking to the recovery plan that it submitted at its last meeting, causing severe disruption in services and inconvenience to passengers.

“It is a matter of concern and it cannot be allowed to continue for long,” Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, DGCA, told media persons on the sidelines of the India Aviation 2012.

“They (Kingfisher Airlines) have given a recovery plan, but are not sticking to it. We are reporting the situation on a daily basis to the Government. Yesterday they flew just 98 flights,” he pointed out.

Asked about a possible action against the airlines, he said “We are assessing the situation and I would not like to speculate on this at the moment.” He said whatever flights the airlines were operating were closely checked by DGCA from the perspective of passenger safety and convenience.

The airlines, which is smarting under a debt of over Rs 7,000 crore, has been cancelling flights as pilots and other staff are not reporting to duty due to non-payment of salaries.

Asked to comment on the flight cancellations leading to increase in air fares, Mr Bhushan admitted that air fares have gone up, but these are within the price band fixed for spot prices.

“We (DGCA) are not in the business of controlling air fares, but all we can say is that pricing is transparent. The increase is because of fall in number of seats,” he said.

> amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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