The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will examine the reasons behind more and more cancellation of the Kingfisher flights. Kingfisher reportedly cancelled over more than 40 flights in the past two days, including 30 flights on Tuesday alone.
The Director-General, Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, told Business Line , “Affected passengers are entitled to get compensation and this is provided in the provisions of the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR). Besides this, we need to see what we can do.”
According to the rules, if the flight is cancelled due to reasons within the control of the airline, it is liable to pay compensation. The compensation shall be given only if the ticket cost is higher than the compensation amount.
The compensation amount will vary from Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 or the value of the ticket which ever is less. On the other hand, if the cost of the ticket is less than the amount of compensation, the airline will be liable to compensate an amount equivalent to the ticket cost in addition to the refund of air ticket.
In the mean time, the airline has issued a statement accepting disturbance of its schedule. “Kingfisher has reduced frequency on some of its flights, which are predominantly over weekends or on some routes where there has been slow demand. For a limited period, these flights are either being cancelled or clubbed with other flights in a well-controlled pre-determined manner.”
The airline is believed to have grounded six aircraft. In this regard, the airline clarified that it has initiated reconfiguration of its aircraft. This exercise will require few of the aircraft to be out of service for the next few weeks, requiring a temporary modification of some of the flight schedules. Once the reconfiguration is complete, these aircraft will be pressed back into service, it added.
The airline, laden with huge debt, is facing problems from various vendors and service providers over payment. It is getting service on cash and carry basis from oil companies.