Kingfisher extends lockout: Will it lose licence?

Crisis-hit Kingfisher Airlines on Friday replied to aviation regulator DGCA's show cause notice on suspension of its licence and extended the lockout, which it had declared till October 20 to October 23.

According to media reports, Kingfisher Airlines is likely to lose its licence.

However, the airline expressed the hope that it would be able to resume operations, after DGCA approves its resumption plan, from November 6.

"We have today replied to the show cause notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation," an airline official told PTI.

The resumption plan would be submitted after the issues were sorted out, the official said.

Kingfisher pilots and engineers have gone on strike from September 30 to protest against non-payment of salary since March, badly crippling the airline's operation.

The DGCA issued show cause notice, on October 5, to the liquor baron Vijay Mallya-owned airline asking why its flying licence should not be suspended or cancelled as it was not adhering to its flight schedule and "abruptly cancelling its flights time and again during the last 10

months", causing great inconvenience to the travelling public.

The DGCA had given the airline a 15-day time to reply to its notice, which was to expire on October 20.

Kingfisher had declared a lockout on September 28 till October 4 following the strike by the airline's engineers and pilots, cancelling its entire flight schedule, and extended it till October 12 later. It was again extended till October 20.

"Kingfisher Airlines Ltd has extended the partial lockout until October 23. Currently, we anticipate resuming operations on November 6, subject to our resumption plan being reviewed and approved by the DGCA," Kingfisher spokesperson said in a statement.

In a bid to resolve the deadlock, the airline management held a meeting with the agitating employees in Mumbai on October 17, which bore no result.

However, the spokesperson said, "We had a positive meeting with employee representatives on October 17 and are hopeful of reaching common ground when we meet again next week."