Kingfisher hawks tickets for 20 Oct without permit to fly

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines has finally stopped booking tickets for flights from 12 October and its website is now taking bookings only from 20 October.

Though the action must be the result of aviation regulator DGCA’s rap on the knuckles over opening ticket sales when it has no permission to fly, there is no clarity yet on whether it will indeed be able to fly even from the 20th. That is the last day by which Kingfisher has to reply to a DGCA show-cause notice which seeks a reply on why the airline’s licence (flying permit) should not either be cancelled or suspended.

Interestingly, some senior airline pilots have said that the management is now saying it will come to them with a proposal on salary disbursement by Friday, 12 October.

But engineers that Firstpost spoke to said no such commitment had been made to them. These engineers also said that the management has clearly said they have not a single penny to pay salaries to any employees.

This, when pilots and engineers allege that the airline has already received Rs 60 crore through a defreezing of bank accounts. This could not be independently confirmed.

An engineer we spoke to said the management has made it clear that this money is needed to pay off other creditors and also deploy in day-to-day expenses so there is nothing left to pay salaries.

If Kingfisher does not come up with any plan on salary disbursements, it is unlikely to get permission to fly again. So, all eyes are now trained on 12 October, when some announcement might come.

Interestingly, in a late night mail to employees yesterday, Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal urged them to join work but was completely silent on any timeline for salary payment. The employees have been working without pay for the last seven months.

In that letter, Aggarwal also said that Kingfisher’s parent company UB Group has infused Rs 1,100 crore in the last six months and efforts are on to get fresh investment into the airline.

“Without all of you, without exception, coming back to work, we will have no way forward. We have been working relentlessly to try and rectify this situation, and that too against all odds,” Aggarwal said in the letter to employees on Tuesday.

Aggarwal stressed the point that only a functioning airline can attract investors. “We are aware it is a big ask, but no potential investor will put his money in an airline that is not operational. Neither will our esteemed guests come back to us unless we commence operations soon.” He said non-strategic investors are also showing interest in investing in Kingfisher Airlines, “which is a good sign.” But nothing would most likely come of this pep talk unless the airline manages to clear at least a part of its salary dues.