Kingfisher to extend deadline to restart ops, talks with staff fail again

Kingfisher Airlines will extend the date to restart the carrier’s operations, its chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal said today. Agarwal termed a crucial meeting between management and striking employees of the airline as “positive”, adding that there will be another round of talks on Monday. Employees, however told CNBC-TV18 that the meeting with the management was not fruitful.

The meeting was attended by top officials of the parent company, UB Group, apart from the airline top-brass three days before the lockout, imposed by the airline is to end. All flights across its network have remained cancelled since then.

Kingfisher said last week that its planes, grounded since 1 October after an employee protest turned violent, would not fly until 20 October.

“Talks have been positive. We are moving in the right direction. We will have to extend the deadline to restart operations,” Aggarwal said on Wednesday.

Once India’s second-biggest airline, Kingfisher has never turned a profit since its launch in 2005. It has defaulted on payments to airports, tax authorities and banks and is seven months behind on salary payments to staff.

Meanwhile the civil aviation regulator has not approved the winter schedule of flights for cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines. The carrier will have to submit its reply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) show-cause notice by October 20. The DGCA had earlier this month sent a show-cause notice to the airline asking why its flying license should not be suspended due to grounding of its entire fleet and saying it had failed to offer safe, efficient and reliable service.

The employees, who struck work on 30 September protesting delay in salaries, are insisting they would resume work after their seven-month dues were paid. Accusing the management of not fulfilling their earlier promises, employees want concrete assurances about payment of their dues.

Earlier several rounds of meetings have been held between the two sides, but to no avail, while the staffers have taken out protest demonstrations in various cities.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has also said the airline would have to submit a concrete plan to DGCA on safety and salary payments, before it is allowed to resume flights.

With inputs from Agencies