On October 9, 2012, Indian airline carrier Kingfisher Airlines, which is struggling to stay afloat, was ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to stop ticket bookings immediately. The reports came after it was known that the airline announced that it was to resume normal operations from October 13, 2012.
A senior official from DGCA said, “We have sent a notice to the airline to stop bookings. The DGCA is still to get a reply from Kingfisher Airlines management on various issues, including safety and certification for air operations. Till a clearance is granted by the DGCA, the airline cannot resume normal operations and start selling tickets’’. The operations of Kingfisher flights were stopped on October 1, 2012.
According to our sources, the operations of the airline had to be brought to a standstill after a section of the employees had turned violent due to the non-payment of their salaries. The DGCA had even asked the airline to explain why its license should not be cancelled following a spate of problems, the DGCA also reasoned that the airline failed to establish a safe, efficient and reliable service.
Some earlier reports had claimed that lender banks had agreed to pay the airline Rs. 80 crores, as a loan from which the airline could pay staff their overdue salaries.
