Kingfisher has again extended its lockout till 5 November, stretching the shutdown that began on 1 October because of an employee protest and was to end this Saturday. The cash-strapped carrier has closed ticket sales till 5 November, a government official and a Kingfisher executive said.
“All ticket sales have been stopped till 5 November,” said the Kingfisher executive. What worries the airline’s 3,000 employees, he said, was not so much whether the carrier can resume operations but how they would be paid their salaries, pending since March.
Both the government official and the Kingfisher executive declined to be identified. With most other options exhausted, the government should handle Kingfisher the same way it did Satyam Computer Services Ltd, the government official said. After Satyam’s founder B. Ramalinga Raju admitted to a multi-crore accounting fraud at what once was India’s fourth largest software firm, the government nominated a board to help revive it. Eventually, Tech Mahindra Ltd bought Satyam in an auction.
“A Satyam model can be used for Kingfisher if the government decides on it,” the official said. “In that brand is retained but fresh management can take over while (the airline’s) Rs.8,000 crore debt is kept aside for sometime. Ultimately, it’s a national asset; where will the thousands of skilled employees go?”
Talks on Wednesday between Kingfisher’s management and its employees failed as the employees declined the airline’s offer to pay March salaries now and make some more payments next month, around Diwali.
There was no clarity on the remaining salary dues, the airline executive said. Talks are rescheduled again for Monday. “I am very sure the regulator will give Kingfisher another extension to reply to the show-cause (notice),”
Meanwhile, Suspension of licence stares in the face of crisis-ridden Kingfisher Airline as it extended its lockout till October 23 and submitted a reply to aviation regulator DGCA's showcause notice on the matter as per a report in TOI.
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