Kingfisher cancels Delhi, Mumbai flights as pilots, engineers strike again

Mumbai: Flight operations of the near-bankrupt Kingfisher Airlines are likely to be severely hit with a section of its pilots and engineers deciding not to report on duty from today in protest against delay in salaries.

The airline today cancelled 22 flights from Delhi a few flights to and from Delhi and around four departures and five arrival flights at Mumbai after some pilots and engineers did not report to work.

While the airline has not paid salary to its staff since the past five months, a sizeable chunk of employees have not received salaries even for February, sources said.

“The management is unmoved on the issue as usual. There is no communication from them as to when they intend to pay us. We just can’t work without being paid for such a long time. Hence the decision (to strike work),” a source said.

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The proposed strike at liquor baron Vijay Mallya-promoted carrier comes ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament beginning tomorrow.

“We hope that the strike will pull attention of Parliament and our plight and misery echoes in the political corridors,” the source said.

Interestingly, Mallya himself is Rajya Sabha member. The airline’s operations have been disrupted time and again since April when for the first time the otherwise not-so-aggressive pilots called off work protesting salary delays.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the management has called a meeting to discuss the situation and wriggle out of yet another crisis, sources said.

When contacted, an airline official said he had heard of a possible agitation but did not divulge further.

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