The woes of a cash-starved Kingfisher Airlines were further aggravated with the Director-General of Civil Aviation considering cancellation of its flying licence after it submitted a summer flying schedule with 15 to 16 aircraft on Monday, as against 28 submitted last month.
The DGCA has asked Vijay Mallya, the airline’s owner, to present a clear picture of the company.
The airline not only lacks aircraft, but also lacks funds for day-to-day operations. They are failing to meet their flight schedule, causing inconvenience to the passengers and also they failed to give salaries to their employees for past four-five months, official sources said. Kingfisher may be planning a quiet shutdown. Mallya being the “accountable” person, has been asked to meet the DGCA to present a clear picture.
The DGCA had served Kingfisher a show cause notice in February after the airline made unannounced cancellations in its flight schedule. “The 15-day mandatory notice period has already lapsed and Kingfisher failed to give a valid reason for curtailment of their flight schedule, most of their explanations are unsatisfactory and they have not given a definite recovery plan,” officials said.
Kingfisher has already decided to curtail its overseas flights, apart from returning a leased aircraft.
According to sources, the airline has planned to suspend its overseas operations from March 25, except for the Delhi-London route, which it will withdraw on April 9. It would also return its wide-body airbus A 330-200 to a lessor in the United Kingdom.
The airline is running through its worst phase as around 60 accounts of Kingfisher Airlines have been frozen by the tax authorities for its failure to pay taxes. Irked by non-payment of salary for four months, the airline’s pilots have been keeping away from work, mostly reporting sick, forcing the airline to curtail its flights.