Kingfisher cancels more flights, hundreds stranded

Kingfisher Airlines cancelled more flights across various cities on Monday, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. News reports stated that up to 12 flights out of Mumbai and four out of Delhi had been cancelled. Flights have also been cancelled in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Chennai. The cancelled flights also reportedly include two international flights.

The DGCA has said it is gathering information on the cancellations and delay of the flights and will decide whether to initiate any action against the carrier. Some media organisations have reported that Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal has been summoned before the authority. Speaking to NDTV earlier DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan said, “We have received reports about large-scale cancellations. They are bound to inform us when they cut their schedule. But they have not done so,” adding, “We are gathering information from all the centres. Once we get this, we will decide what to do.”

Aviation rules require operators to have prior approval of the DGCA to curtail their flight schedules.

The airline said in a statement late on Sunday that it had cancelled 32 flights out of the 240 it operates each day. The disruption was due to “unexpected events” including bird strikes, which forced aircrafts out of service, the airline said.

Kingfisher, which on Thursday reported a loss of 4.44 billion rupees in the fiscal third quarter that ended in December, said its bank accounts had been frozen by the tax authorities over outstanding dues.

“However, this has happened in the past not just to us but also to Air India AIN.UL. We have resolved issues before and will do so again,” the company said in the statement.

In December, tax officials froze 11 bank accounts of Kingfisher for failing to pay service taxes.

Bank accounts for the company were frozen for two days in November as well, but were subsequently opened up after the airline promised to pay the taxes.

Kingfisher has so far failed in efforts to attract fresh equity. Banks own about a quarter of its shares and State Bank of India, the lead bank, refuses to lend more without an equity injection.

But the airline said it was confident it would be able to raise new funds.

“We have had a good meeting with our consortium of banks who have accepted, in principle, the viability study prepared by SBI Capital markets and independent consultants,” the statement said.

“Our request for additional working capital has been acknowledged by the consortium and is subject to individual bank approvals.”

The government is expected to soon allow foreign carriers to take a 49 percent stake in local airlines, a move Kingfisher has long called for, which may prove to be the saviour of the debt-laden industry.

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With inputs from Reuters