A question mark hangs over when Kingfisher Airlines will restart operations. At a meeting with the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Arun Mishra, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Aggarwal said that Kingfisher will take to the skies on Friday.
The airline’s pilots and engineers, however, claim they have no plans of rejoining work. They have been on strike for the past few days.
After a meeting in Mumbai, the engineers said the status quo would remain and they will not report to work as there had been no communication from the management.
‘Unnecessary, unprovoked’
On Monday night, the airline declared a partial lockout with all flight operations being suspended till October 4.
In a statement, the airline said the decision had been taken following a “series of protracted and unabated incidents of violence, criminal intimidation, assault, wrongful restraint and other illegal acts, including refraining from attending work, by a small section of recalcitrant employees – which were all unnecessary and unprovoked.”
Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s meeting with the DGCA, the airline’s management claimed that it had paid March salaries to 2,000 of its 4,000 employees.
The DGCA was also informed that the management has had discussions with the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs about unfreezing its bank accounts.
Such a step would release about Rs 60 crore, which could be used to pay March salaries to the remaining employees. The airline had given the DGCA such assurances even on an earlier occasion.
Kingfisher officials claimed that they are in advanced talks with two or three companies for investment in the airline. In March this year too, the airline’s promoter Vijay Mallya had told employees the same thing at a meeting here.
Kingfisher officials said they had the full support of local banks, which had told the airline that if it could find an investor, they would cooperate with its restructuring plans.
Safety concerns
DGCA officials communicated to the airline that they would like regular and scheduled services to become operational as early as possible, but that the airline cannot be allowed to run with safety concerns. It was also made clear that before it is allowed to restart, Kingfisher’s operational plans will have to get DGCA’s nod.
No aircraft can take to the skies until it is certified by a qualified engineer of the airline.
DGCA officials also said they were ready to talk to the airline’s employees and added that if the airline came back with its operational plans by Thursday, it could take to the skies by Friday.
The airline said it was incurring an operational loss of Rs 8 crore a day while operating its flights; its operational losses declined by half while not operating its full schedule.
Currently, the airline is operating a fleet of 10 aircraft although it has a staff strength to support 60 aircraft.