Kingfisher pilots to go on strike today

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 Wednesday in protest against delay in salaries.

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.

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

“We hope the strike will alert Parliament,” the source said. It is understood that the management called a meeting to discuss the situation.

An airline official said he had heard of a possible agitation but did not divulge further. The airline’s stock declined 2.02 per cent to hit a lifetime low of Rs 8.71 a share on Tuesday.