Kingfisher cancels 20 flights, DGCA to brief minister

Kingfisher Airlines cancelled about 20 flights today even as the DGCA was set to brief the Civil Aviation Minister on the ailing carrier's plans to restore its services.

The airline is expected to submit a fresh flight schedule to the DGCA which had asked it to come up with a "realistic" schedule which can be operated by 28 out of its 64 aircraft.

DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan would meet Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh today to brief him about the discussions he had with the Kingfisher top brass yesterday and the airline's plan to restore its schedule over the next few days.

Among the flights cancelled this morning were 14 from Mumbai and two from Delhi.

Reports said the airlines was partially restoring its operations from Kolkata especially flights from there to the Northeast. All operations from Kolkata were shut down from Friday night.

The DGCA chief had yesterday said that the airlines will have to file a new schedule instead of a truncated one in the next 24 hours.

The cash-strapped carrier, facing the wrath of Income Tax authorities which has frozen its bank accounts, was operating only 28 of its 64 planes, leading to large-scale disruption of its schedule.

At least 40 flights were cancelled across its national network yesterday.

Kingfisher, which suffered a loss of Rs 1,027 crore in 2010-11 and has a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore, posted a Rs 444 crore loss in third quarter this fiscal.