New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines on Sunday suspended its Kolkata operations and also cancelled 16 more flights from Mumbai.
The cancellation of flights comes amidst reports that the airline is going through financial trouble and one of its bank accounts has been seized by the income tax authorities.
Sources also said the Mumbai-Delhi flight bookings are shut, as KFA has cancelled Delhi-Bangalore and Delhi-Pune flights. Its Bangkok operation has also been shut down.
The airline’ s services to Singapore were also affected as its website showed there were no flights available for the next ten days.
The sources said operations from Tier-II and Tier-III cities are likely to be affected till March-end.
Meanwhile, aviation regulator, DGCA has sought a reply from the beleaguered airlines regarding the cancellation of flights by today evening.
It has also begun a probe into the cancellation of flights by Kingfisher without giving any prior information. The aviation regulator is in talks with the Civil Aviation Ministry to decide on the further course of action.
“We have received reports about large-scale cancellations. They are bound to inform us when they cut their schedule. But they have not done so,” DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan said.
He said if the reports were true, such large of flight disruption would constitute violation of rules.
“We are gathering information from all the centres. Once we get this, we will decide what to do,” he said.
Under Rule 140(A) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937 operators require to have prior approval of DGCA to curtail their flight schedules.
Bhushan also said that messages have been sent by the DGCA to all other airlines to accommodate all passengers stranded due to these cancellations by Kingfisher.
The development comes after Friday’s confusion when Kingfisher Airline’s employees in the commercial, cargo and engineering sections protested at Kolkata Airport over non-payment of salaries, leaving 24 Bhubaneswar-bound passengers and 174 Mumbai-bound passengers in lurch.
