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.
http://www.livemint.com
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