The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today ordered a special safety survellance on Kingfisher airlines. DGCA, Bharat Bhushan also told the media that it met the CEO of the KF airlines and asked them to explain the abrupt cancellation of flights without any notice to DGCA. Out of 170 flights a day Kingfisher is only able to operate 24 flights. Bharat Bhushan however said Special Safety Surveillance does not mean that the airline is not safe.
The DGCA has asked the ministry for civil aviation for suitable direction on further action on the Kingfisher Airlines.The airline told the DGCA about its dire financial condition and that it had not paid salaries to its employees. Dozens of its pilots have resigned.
The Kingfisher airlines assured the DGCA that all December salaries will be paid to the employees.
DGCA says it is also concerned about the abrupt cancellation of flights and told the airline to inform the passengers well in advance about any cancellation. It has also asked the airline to refund the amount
Bharat Bhushan however ruled out the possibility of grounding the Airlines. "we cannot ground an airline which operates at national as well as international level. That will cause more problems for the passengers," he said.
The DGCA has also ruled out controlling the fares. "This is purely a demand and supply economics" he said.
under rule 140 an airline is bound to inform in the DGCA about flight cancellation
The Kingfisher Airlines had earlier clarified that it was forced to cancel some flights after tax authorities froze its bank accounts, hurting its ability to make operational payments.
It all started on Sunday after KF one of India's major airlines, announced sudden cancellation of several of its flights. On Monday more than 19 flights were cancelled from Mumabi, while around 9 flights were cancelled out of Delhi, according to information last came in. Kingfisher flights also remained grounded in major airports including Kolkata, Bangalore and Chandigarh. Airline management issued a clarification that these disruptions would continue till the next four days.
The sudden cancellation of the flights have come as a rude shock for the travellers. "I had to take an urgent flight to Delhi. They (airline) did not even bother to inform me," a passenger whose Kingfisher flight was cancelled at Mumbai airport told India Travel Port News Network.
Kingfisher Airlines(KING.NS) said it was forced to cancel some flights in recent days because tax authorities had frozen its bank accounts, hurting its ability to make operational payments.
Around 39 flights operate from Mumbai where 19 flights were reported to be cancelled, affecting passengers to Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Delhi.
In Delhi 9 Kingfisher flights were Cancelled, these included 4 departures and 5 arrivals while 5 departures were delayed and one arrival delayed. Among the flights cancelled from Delhi included flights to cities such as Dehradun, Bangalore, Lucknow, Chennai. Meanwhile , Kingfisher clarified in a statement that the airline had not shut any stations nor intents to do so.
The management clarified that there have been flight disruptions since yesterday which will continue for four days due to unexpected events including bird strikes which rendered aircraft out of service.
Only 208 flights could be operated daily.
Kingfisher has also clarified that speculative queries that they were reducing their operating schedule from 240 flights a day were "ill-founded" and they will operate the full schedule within the next 4 days.
"There have been queries on whether we have been selling low fares. We cannot possibly understand the logic or motivation behind such a question as we, ourselves, announced that we intend focussing on the full service segment where our yields are higher," a statement from the airline said.
"This low fare question was initially attributed to Air India and it seems to be Kingfisher's turn now to respond to questions from vested interests.We confirm that our Bank accounts were attached by the tax authorities. However, this has happened in the past not just to us but also to Air India. We have resolved issues before and will do so again," it further added. (ITP News Network)
