Kingfisher Airlines faces shutdown threat, DGCA summons CEO

mangaloretoday.com/ CNN-IBN

New Delhi, Oct 1: Sources in the Aviation Ministry said on Monday that the CEO of the Kingfisher Airlines had been summoned by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after all of its flights were grounded after pilots refused to work over non-payment of salaries. The meeting will be held on Tuesday. The sources added that the Aviation Ministry will soon take a call on shutting down the airline that is facing a severe financial crisis.

Kingfisher cancelled all of its flights on Monday after its pilots and engineers refused to report to work. The airline in a statement said that it was taking all possible measures to lessen the impact of the employee strike.

The airline further said it would proactively cancel flights on Monday as it feared that a number of its employees may not report to work due to threats from other workers. "A section of employees of KFA 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," said Prakash Mirpuri, a Kingfisher spokesman.

Kingfisher Airlines operations in Mumbai and Delhi were crippled as a section of airline engineers went on a flash strike over non-payment of salaries since March. The shares of Kingfisher Airlines tumbled by about 5 per cent after the company said it was cancelling flights due to employee unrest.