Cannot advocate banks bailing out Kingfisher: Singh

The government cannot advocate a bail-out of Kingfisher Airlines by banks, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said Tuesday ahead of a meeting of the cash-strapped carrier with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) following large-scale disruptions of its operations.

"DGCA has asked for an explanation because passengers were not informed and neither was DGCA about the cancellation. It is against the rules and causes inconvenience to passengers," Singh told reporters here.

Singh said it was important to hear Kingfisher and how it had planned to get out of the situation.

"We have to hear Kingfisher. Whenever big companies close down, it does affect people but you are certainly not going to advocate that banks should bail out all the ailing companies," he said.

Around 35 flights of Kingfisher Airlines were cancelled Monday, disrupting operations for a third day in a row. The airline is operating only 16 of its fleet of 64 planes and has cancelled more than a 100 flights since Saturday.