Meeting with Mallya fruitful: Kingfisher staff

CNN-IBN | 20 Jun 2013 01:06 am

New Delhi: There seems to be an end in sight to the stand-off in Kingfisher Airlines as Chairman Vijay Mallya has assured salaries for junior staff by Wednesday. Pilots and engineers said their meeting with Mallya was fruitful.

Amidst the strike threat, Mallya invited the representative pilots and other staff to his residence on Monday evening in a bid to diffuse the crisis. The meeting went on till late in the night.

The deadline set by agitating Kingfisher Airlines pilots and engineers ends on Tuesday evening at 8 pm. Kingfisher employees have threatened to go on a strike if they aren't paid their salaries on Tuesday.

If the employees' demand isn't met within the deadline, 350 Kingfisher Airline engineers across country are threatening to go on strike and nearly 30 Mumbai-based pilots may follow suit.

Earlier on Monday, a meeting held at Kingfisher Airlines' Andheri office in Mumbai saw the agitated engineers and pilots giving a letter to the management with an ultimatum to either disburse their salaries by Tuesday or be ready to face a strike despite company Chairman Vijay Mallya's assurance.

Mallya had promised that the junior staff would be paid before Easter on April 4 and all pilots and engineers would get their salaries on April 9 and April 10.

Mallya's letter addressed to the employees came after the Kingfisher Airlines staff who have not been paid their salaries for the past few months wrote to the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, which is managed by Mallya, urging the players to boycott the Indian Premier League (IPL) so that they get their dues.

Kingfisher has been closing down offices across India temporarily due to curtailment of flights from 64 aircraft to 16 aircraft. The Airlines has also suspended all international flights from March 25 and further curtail domestic operations even as Government warned the ailing carrier that its flying licence could be cancelled if it failed to meet safety norms.

Kingfisher has a total debt of about Rs 7,000 crore and accumulated losses of about Rs 6,000 crore. The financial crunch has hit Kingfisher's operations with dozens of flights being cancelled.

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