The Director-General of Civil Aviation has asked Kingfisher Airlines to submit a revised operating schedule based on the number of aircraft it is actually in a position to operate.

The airline has been given 24 hours to come up with a revised schedule that it can realistically operate. The airline has informed that it is able to operate 28 of the 64 aircraft in its fleet.

Briefing newspersons after a two-hour long meeting with the airline Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sanjay Aggarwal, the Director-General of Civil Aviation, Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, said that the airline is expected to return on Wednesday with a revised schedule based on its current fleet of 28 aircraft.

The DG said that on the basis of 28 aircraft the airline should be able to operate about 175 flights. Earlier, the airline used to operate over 400 flights a day.

“As far as their revival plans are concerned, they do have plans….but I would not like to look at it now as it involves a lot of leased aircraft. They themselves say they are expecting finance from banks. So I would not like to speculate at this stage,” Mr Bhushan said.

The meeting had been called as the airline had cancelled several flights in the last few days, which no scheduled airline is allowed to do under Indian laws.

The Director-General, however, ruled out cancelling the operating licence of the airline as the move would precipitate the current situation and lead to a fare hike. Domestic airfares have risen by 10-30 per cent in the last few days coinciding with disruption in Kingfisher service..

“There are provisions in the Aircraft Rules that call for very strong action… but you just cannot do that. If we do that, it will only further precipitate the problems. We are trying to bring them back subject to norms of safety and other things. No action is proposed as Kingfisher is a major airline. If you take a decision to suspend their permit, it will only compound the problem for the travelling public as so many seats will not be available. So we can naturally not look at that at the moment,” Mr Bhushan said.

At the meeting, the airline also said that it was expecting “a big relief from banks.” Currently a consortium of 13 banks is looking at providing additional funding to the airline.

Later, speaking to newspersons, Mr Sanjay Agarwal said that the airline hoped to return to its normal schedule in the next five-seven days.

“The airline has sufficient number of pilots and no flight has been cancelled because of shortage of pilots.

Passengers have been kept informed about the cancellation and bunching flights,” Mr Aggarwal said.

The airline has also assured the DGCA that the pending salaries of its employees will be paid by the end of month.

>ashphadnis@thehindu.co.in

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