Asia Bizz: Indian airline group Kingfisher Airlines – which has been going through turbulent times the past few weeks – has announced a further reduction in its flight schedule on March 14,2012 . The airline also said that its promoter Vijay Mallya had a meeting with the pilots protesting over delayed salaries on March 15, 2012.
Last month, the Indian authorities were informed by the company that they will be operating 140 flights on a daily basis. Despite the shortage of crew, the airline reportedly operated 101 flights on March 13, 2012 and 101 flights on March 14, 2012.
Kingfisher Airlines also stated that it has returned wide body airbus A 330-200 to a lessor in the UK. The airline has also announced that it has plans to curtail its international operations, but it has not clarified on which international sectors will be affected.
The airline, in a statement, said that the liquidity crunch was mainly caused by the tax authorities, after they froze its bank accounts. The statement added that with many of their pilots and engineers who have expressed their disappointment, they have sincerely apologized to them.
Kingfisher Airlines, has a debt of INR 7,057.08 crore due to which it is struggling to maintain its position in terms of payment of salaries to the employees.
The statement added, “We are trying to protect the interests of our valuable employees. We share their pain caused by unpaid salaries and we are also trying to protect their jobs apart from paying salaries,”
