New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI): The Director General of Civil Aviation on Saturday suspended the flying licence of Kingfisher Airlines, which has been reeling from a debt-crisis followed by a staff agitation over unpaid salaries.
The regulator’s suspension of Kingfisher’s scheduled operator permit came a day after the airline, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, said it is extending its lockout till October 23 and replied to the DGCA’s October 5 show-cause notice.
Suspension of flying licence means no bookings can be made on the networks of Kingfisher and travel agents. Had the licence been cancelled, Kingfisher would have had to apply afresh from scratch.
Kingfisher has failed to resolve a 21-day impasse with its employees, who are agitating because they have not been paid their salaries for over seven months.
Kingfisher has been saddled with a loss of Rs 8,000 crore and a debt burden of over Rs 7,524 crore, a large part of which it has not serviced since January. The airline currently has only 10 operational aircraft compared to 66 a year ago.
The DGCA had asked Kingfisher to explain why its flying licence should not be suspended or cancelled as it was not adhering to its flight schedule and “abruptly cancelling its flights time and again during the last 10 months”.
The DGCA had given the airline 15 days to reply to its notice. The deadline ended on Saturday.
Later the airline issued a statement saying it had ”extended the partial lockout until October 23, 2012.”
It claimed to have had a “positive meeting” with employee representatives on October 17 and said it is hopeful of reaching common ground “when we meet again next week”.
The airline had said it anticipates resuming operations on November 6, provided the DGCA cleared its plans.
The beleaguered carrier did not mention extension of the lockout in it “open-ended” reply to DGCA, they said, adding that the airline, in its letter, sought more time to prepare a response to the DGCA notice but did not give any deadline.
Kingfisher was issued an airline licence on August 26, 2003. It was actually issued to Air Deccan, which was bought over by Kingfisher. It is valid till December 31 this year.
In its reply, the airline blamed industrial unrest for not being able to operate its flights. It also cited its good safety record and on-time performance over the years and welcomed the government's decision to allow foreign airlines to pick up stake in Indian carriers.
In the final paragraph, Kingfisher's Executive Vice-President Hitesh Patel said the company needed more time to give a proper reply to the DGCA show-cause notice and sought permission to appear in person to respond to other queries by the regulator. But it did not give any time-line.
Sources said Kingfisher was on cash and carry by most service providers and the government did not want a situation where the airline re-starts operations and then keeps flying in fits and starts, as has been happening since last year-end.
In the latest instance, its pilots and engineers went on strike from September 30 to protest against non-payment of salary since March. The airline then declared a lockout on first till October 4 and then extended it till October 20. It as further extended till October 23 on Friday.
