DGCA may also cancel licence if airline fails to reply to notice
Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines is running out of time to keep its flying licence intact. Sources in the aviation regulator, directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), said that the airline will need to reply by Friday (October 19) to a show-cause notice sent on October 5 asking the airline why its licence should not be revoked.
?We will not give them an extension,? a senior DGCA official told FE on condition of anonymity. ?They haven?t replied to the show-cause notice yet and if they don?t reply on time, we will suspend their license.?
The show cause notice was sent as pre-cursor to the cancellation of the airline?s license. However, the DGCA official said that the licence would not be immediately cancelled but will be suspended if the airline does not give a satisfactory reply by the end of day on Friday.
?We will suspend it (license) if we don?t get their reply, following which we will begin the process of cancellation of the airline?s flying license,? the DGCA official added.
The show-cause notice also asks the airline about a feasible plan for payment of salaries to the employees. The impasse has not yet seen any breakthrough after multiple rounds of talks. The management is scheduled to meet the airline?s staff again on Monday. Kingfisher?s flights have been grounded since October 1.
The DGCA had forced the airline to stop selling tickets on its website till its operational plan was cleared by the regulator. The airline?s winter schedule was also rejected by the DGCA.
In the list of flights approved which was released by the ministry of civil aviation, Kingfisher Airlines flights were not approved. Industry officials said that this move itself is akin to a temporary suspension of its flying license. On Thursday, the airline?s scrip closed 5% lower at R12.
Launched in May 2005, the airline has never made a profit and sitting on a debt pile of R8,022 crore. It also owes nearly $1 billion to lessors and suppliers.
