DGCA suspends Kingfisher's license

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended the Scheduled Operator Permit (SOP) of Kingfisher Airlines following its failure to come up with a viable plan of financial and operational revival.

Noting that the airline had not addressed "any of the issues" raised in its show-cause notice of October 5 and meetings with top officials, the DGCA suspended its SOP "till such time the Kingfisher Airlines submits a concrete and reliable revival plan ensuring safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable Scheduled Air Transport Services to the satisfaction of DGCA."

"They were asked to submit their operational preparedness plan for resumption of flight operations. Instead, they have sought more time to file a reply to the show cause notice not indicating any time frame for submitting the detailed response," an official spokesperson said, adding that this request was rejected.

"The DGCA has suspended the flying licence of Kingfisher Airline because of safety reasons," Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told reporters here.

Singh said the planes were not being maintained and serviced by their engineers who were on strike. "Safety can't be compromised."

Suspension of flying licence implies an immediate halt to all flying operations, which in any case have been grounded since October one when the lockout was declared. It also entails stopping of all ticket bookings on the entire network as well as through travel agents, DGCA officials said.

Kingfisher was issued an airline licence on August 26, 2003. It was actually in the name of Air Deccan which was bought over by the liquor baron Vijay Mallya-owned carrier. The permit is valid till December 31 this year.

Kingfisher has been saddled with a loss of Rs 8,000 crore and a debt burden of another over Rs 7,524 crore, a large part of which has not been serviced since January. It currently has only 10 operational aircraft compared to 66 a year ago. (MORE)