IANS/New Delhi/Mumbai


An employee of Kingfisher Airlines works next to a “counter closed” sign at its booking office at Mumbai’s domestic airport yesterday
At least 35 flights of Kingfisher Airlines were cancelled yesterday, disrupting operations for the third day in a row and the government ruled out a bailout for the cash-strapped carrier.
The airline was also asked to explain the reasons for flight cancellations.
The airline is operating only 16 of its fleet of 64 planes and has cancelled more than 100 flights since Saturday. While its Kolkata centre is virtually shut down, the airline’s international operation is in doldrums as flights to Kathmandu, Dhaka, Colombo and Bangkok have been affected.
Officials at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport said the cancellations had created major problems for passengers who had booked on the airline months in advance.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked other airlines to accommodate the stranded passengers.
More bad news came in from Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh who ruled out a bailout for the airline which saw its net loss mounting to Rs444 crore ($88mn) in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
“The government is not going to give any bailout or ask the banks to bail out any private airline or any private industry for that matter,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told reporters here.
The airline has been relegated to fifth place in terms of market share of 12.1%.
The DGCA called in the airline’s chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal for a meeting today.
“We have received reports about large-scale cancellations. They are bound to inform us when they cut their schedule. But they have not done so,” DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan said.
Kingfisher has been beset with difficulties caused by soaring fuel costs and high local sales taxes, as well as a domestic price war.
At the weekend, the airline blamed some of the disruptions - the second batch since November - on bird strikes. It said a full daily schedule of 240 flights should return to operation over this week.
Flight cancellations have hit passenger confidence hard and left stranded travellers fuming against the airline.
“At the airport I was told my flight is delayed and there is no clue when it will fly,” private bank executive Amit Vij said at Mumbai airport as he tried to return to the northern city Chandigarh.
“They did not call, SMS or e-mail me in advance. Even the helplines are not responding.”
The Bangalore-based airline, owned by colourful brewing magnate Vijay Mallya, has never posted a net profit since it started operating in 2005.
It has seen its passenger market share slump to 12% in recent months, with its ranking on the list of India’s largest airlines falling from second to fifth.
India’s airline industry - once a symbol of the country’s economic progress - is now plagued by high fuel prices, fierce competition, price wars and inadequate airport infrastructure, with Kingfisher one of the worst-hit firms.
The company’s shares closed on Friday at Rs26.6, down 39% from a year earlier. Markets were closed yesterday due to a holiday.
A quarter of Kingfisher is owned by local banks and some have refused to lend the company more cash unless fresh capital is raised.
Questions about the firm’s financial viability grew after it axed its low-cost Kingfisher Red service to concentrate on its full-fare business in September.
“Kingfisher will soon have to consider limiting operations to bleed less, besides selling and leasing back some aircraft to lower debt,” said a Mumbai-based aviation analyst on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the airline said the prime reason behind the disruption was the sudden attachment of its bank accounts by the income tax (IT) department over unpaid service taxes and that they be unfrozen.
“This has severely affected our ability to make operational payments leading to the present curtailment. We are in dialogue with the tax authorities to agree a payment plan and get the bank accounts unfrozen at the earliest,” a Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said.