Ailing airlines Kingfisher Airlines stated that it will be cancelling many of its flights on October 1, 2012. The airline reasoned that the cause of the cancellation is due to the unrest between its employees. The proposed cancellation caused the shares of the airline to drop by their daily limit of 5 percent.
The airline feared that many of its employees would not turn up to work as these workers had received threats from other workers. Prakash Mirpuri the spokesperson for Kingfisher Airlines said in a statement, “A section of employees of Kingfisher Airlines has not been reporting for work over the last fortnight and over the past two days, they have been threatening and even manhandling the other employees who are reporting for work”.
The flights which were scheduled to depart from New Delhi Airport up until 4:30 pm have been cancelled according to the Kingfisher website. Some media reports stated that the airlines’ ground staff had refused to attach an air bridge to a plane in Mumbai on September 30, 2012; leaving stranded passengers onboard. An executive was also allegedly beaten up by some engineers.
This was the first instance of violence at Kingfisher Airlines, which has still not paid employees salaries for months.
