Kingfisher Airlines licence could face suspension: Ajit Singh

With Kingfisher Airlines' financial stress refusing to go away, the government has sounded a warning to the cash-strapped airline. Aviation minister Ajit Singh on Friday said that if the DGCA feels the airline's inability to pay staff could affect safety or if Airports Authority of India (AAI) refuses more credit to the airline, its licence could be suspended.

"Closing an airline will impact passengers, employees... So cancellation of licence won't happen. Suspension, however, gives a chance to restart operations once the issues have been sorted out," Singh, who has asked DGCA to ensure complete safety on Kingfisher's aircraft told TOI.

This is the first time that the ministry has issued a warning to Kingfisher, which on Thursday saw its long-unpaid technicians go on strike for a while. In January, the DGCA's financial audit had concluded that "a reasonable case exists for withdrawal of their (Kingfisher's ) licence as their financial stress is likely to impinge on safety".

About two years ago, the ministry had for the first time ever suspended the licences of two airlines - MDLR and Paramount - for not meeting regulatory requirements. These two can begin operations as and when they comply with norms.

Meanwhile, the woes of the distressed airline seem to be never ending with about 50 Kingfisher Airlines pilots having refused to operate flights until their salaries were paid. On Thursday, airline pilots met Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Aggarwal to discuss the delay in the payment of their salaries. However they couldn’t decide on a date by when the salaries would be paid.

As a protest, around 50 pilots have refused to operate, said an airline source. A Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said, “Flights are operating according to schedule today.” However, according to sources in Mumbai, departures to Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Singapore were either cancelled or clubbed.

The crisis at Kingfisher Airlines escalated further with the Service Tax Department here freezing as many as 40 bank accounts of the already crippled airline for non-payment of dues of Rs 40 crore.

“Over Thursday and Friday, we froze 40 bank accounts of Kingfisher Airlines. They failed to meet the February 29 deadline to make the payments. The airline owes Rs 40 crore to the department,” the Service Tax Commissioner, Mr S.K. Solanki, told PTI today.

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