Kingfisher says staff ready to resume work -- The deal comes after airline chief Sanjay Aggarwal met with engineers and pilots in Delhi

Mumbai: The labor unrest at grounded Kingfisher Airlines Ltd ended on Thursday as most of the employees, including engineers and pilots, agreed to resume work following a meeting with chief executive officer Sanjay Aggarwal in Delhi. 

“All Kingfisher Team members back at work and fully supportive.I sincerely thank all of them for their faith and continuing commitment,” Vijay Mallya, chairman of the airline tweeted.

Mint spoke to various representatives of pilots and engineers and all of them said they have agreed to return to work. Employees clarified that they will not hold any protest during the Formula One race starting later this week. Mallya, a part-owner of the Force India racing team, is attending the race.

Employees have not been paid since March.

“The airline has released Rs21 crore for disbursing salaries of March,” a senior airline executive said, requesting anonymity.

However, Kingfisher Airlines will cannot resume its operation despite the return of employees as the Indian regulator Director General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA, had suspended its license on Saturday. Also, the Airports Authority of India indicated that it would not allow the airline to use airport facilities for landing or take off untill the airline clear dues of over Rs250 crore.

DGCA had asked the airline on 5 October to demonstrate why its permit to fly should not be suspended or cancelled for failing to establish a “safe, efficient and reliable service” and gave it 15 days to submit its reply.

‘’All employees are now eagerly looking forward to working together in order to re-starting operations very soon. We will now finalize and present our resumption plan to the DGCA and hope to get their concurrence soon,’’ Prakash Mirpuri, vice president-corporate communications at Kingfisher Airlines, said.

Kingfisher had previously grounded flights until 25 October. The regulator last week rejected Kingfisher’s winter schedule, prompting speculation that flights will continue to be grounded past the 20 October deadline. Kingfisher Airlines flew 2,930 flights a week in the winter schedule last year.

Kingfisher Airlines Ltd rose 4.81% to close at Rs.10.9 per share on Thursday on the BSE Ltd, when the benchmark index, Sensex rose 0.26% to close at 18758.63 points.

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