Cash-starved Kingfisher Airlines has promised to pay May 2012 salaries of its employees within the next two days, engineers and pilots? representatives of the airline said on Thursday.
?We will wait till November 17 and if we still don?t get the salaries, we will chart out our future course of action,? a Mumbai-based representative of the Kingfisher Airlines Engineers? Association said. ?The airline had blamed the delay on a technical glitch in the bank?s clearing system.?
Last month, pilots and engineers of the airline went on a strike due to non-payment of salaries and grounded the Kingfisher since October 1. On October 25, the airline promised to pay of March, April and May salaries by Diwali or November 13, following which the staff agreed to return to work. The employees were paid March and April?s salaries in November.
?March salary will be paid on or before October 25…the April salary on or before October 31 and May salary before Diwali. In essence, they will receive three months of salary before Diwali,? Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO of Kingfisher had told the employees in an email in October.
The 26-day staff agitation in October led to the suspension of Kingfisher?s flying license. The airline will now have to submit a revival plan to its bankers and the DGCA before it can restart flights. Kingfisher officials were unavailable to comment on when the May salaries will be cleared and the cause of delay.
The liquor-baron Vijay Mallya owned airline posted a net loss of R754 crore for the fiscal 2012-13 second quarter ended September. With a debt pile of R8,633.1 crore, the airline had to pay R401.43 crore as interest cost during the quarter, nearly twice its revenue of R200 crore.
?Kingfisher Airlines is preparing a comprehensive plan for re-start of operations which will be shared with the DGCA and bankers,? said the airline in a statement on November 8. ?The airline is in discussions with various stakeholders to ensure that there are no further disruptions and expects to resume operations in the near future.?
On Thursday, Kingfisher?s share closed 4.93% lower on the BSE at R14.07.
