Kingfisher pilots to meet today to decide on their strategy

Troubles for Kingfisher Airlines are set to increase, as a section of its pilots is to meet in Mumbai tomorrow and decide on future strategy.

“In our meeting tomorrow, we are going to decide on whether we can continue to fly without salaries or not. We cannot fly without salaries but we need to discuss and decide and the decision will then be conveyed to the management,” said a senior commander.

The commander disclosed airline CEO Sanjay Aggarwal had said if they do not fly, the airline will shut down and they should keep flying.

“We also do not want the airline to close down but how can one fly when even the salaries are not paid? We all work for salaries. We have also requested pilots to come back to work soon, so that we cannot be blamed for anything,” he added.

The airline said in a release today that at no time was shutting the airline suggested. “Our CEO met with a group of pilots to appeal not to stay away from flying duties, which would potentially affect the operating schedule,” it said.

The pilots say the airline is looking for reasons to blame them for any operational issues. “The airline earlier blamed freezing of accounts by government departments as the reason for flight cancellation and now they may blame us for any operational issues arising in the future,” said another pilot, who did not want to be identified.

However, the airline said their flights are “operating as per schedule and we truly appreciate the continued dedication and commitment of all staff to our valued guests”.

The airline is in deep financial trouble and even banks have refused to lend money and many of them have termed the airline’s loan accounts a non-performing asset.

Kingfisher recorded a loss of Rs 1,027 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 1,175 crore for the first three quarters of the current financial year. It has accumulated losses of around Rs 6,000 crore.

The service tax department has frozen 40 accounts for the fourth time in four months over dues of Rs 40 crore.

The airline also said in its release that they were trying their best to cooperate with the tax authorities and “get the accounts un-frozen at the earliest so that normalcy could be restored, employee salaries paid and further aircraft recoveries started”.