Kingfisher Woes Continue | More Flights Cancelled

New Delhi: There was no relief for the passengers who booked Kingfisher Airlines flights for the fourth day in a row. The airlines cancelled 15 flights in Mumbai and 8 flights in Bangalore on Tuesday, a day after 40 flights were cancelled in India.

Only 16 out of 64 Kingfisher aircraft were operating on Tuesday as well.

As Kingfisher's woes continue, the airlines' CEO Sanjay Aggarwal met the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday to explain the flight cancellations in the last four days.

The DGCA had said that the airline operator must inform them if scheduled flights are being cancelled.

Talking to sources, a defiant Dr Vijay Mallya said that he will not close down Kingfisher unless the government forces him to. The Kingfisher Airlines Chairman said that they were doing their best to handle the crisis and that they were doing their best to raise money.

Mallya also said that the taxman must defreeze their accounts in order for airline to operate.
This came even as Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh put the onus squarely on Vijay Mallya to mobilise his own funds, refusing to provide any bailout from the government.

Earlier on Monday, Kingfisher Airlines also claimed that it will give the salaries to its employees in a week's time, blaming "some large unexpected payments" for the delay in salary disbursement. The CEO of the airlines also hinted that the disruption of flights operations will continue for one more week.

In a message to the employees of Kingfisher Airlines, Aggarwal said, "We got hit by some large unexpected payments which had to be addressed on an emergency basis. It will take us another week before we complete the salary disbursements."

"For some of you working at the airports, we have arranged a cash advance of Rs 5000," added Aggarwal.

Posted in: Business