Protesting against the non-payment of their salaries and other dues for the past five months, a section of Kingfisher Airlines pilots Tuesday went on a strike forcing the airline to cancel eight flights.

Airline officials said the pilots who did not report to work were those who operate the 70-seater ATR turboprop aircraft on short-haul routes connecting regional airports.

The airline cancelled eight flights -- three to Dehradun, two to Dharamshala, and one each to Jaipur, Shimla and Chandigarh -- from Delhi.

However, the Airbus A-320 operations of Kingfisher were going on as per the normal schedule, the officials maintained.

This is the second time in last eight days that the airline's pilots have gone on an agitation over non-payment of their dues.

"A section of the airline's pilots, mainly operating ATRs, did not report for duty on the salary payment issue. Owing to the agitation, the airline has cancelled five flights as we could not get pilots to operate the aircraft," the officials said.

Kingfisher Airlines CEO Sanjay Agarwal met the agitators in Delhi and is said to have assured them that the airline would begin payment of due salary from July 13.

Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

On July 2, when the pilots in Mumbai had threatened a strike, the management representatives had a meeting with the Mumbai-based employees and promised to start disbursing salaries from July 6.
Besides CEO Aggarwal, the meeting was also attended by Executive Vice President Hitesh Patel, Chief Financial Officer H G Raghunath and a cross-section of employees, including pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground handling staff.

While a large chunk of junior staffers got part of their dues, the airline management said the pilots and other staff would be paid in a few days thereafter.

Kingfisher is, at present, carrying out truncated domestic and international operations with about 15 aircraft, in place of 64.

A large number of its flight engineers have reportedly quit over the past five months, primarily due to delayed payments. In April, around 200 engineers reported sick as a mark of protest over the issue.

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