Kingfisher may cut 200 flights

New Delhi - 19 Nov 2011: Alarm bells are ringing in aviation ministry with Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher indicating to government that it is looking at curtailing 200 flights from its daily winter schedule of 418 domestic flights. Realising that such a drastic reduction in capacity in the peak season would spell trouble for passengers, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has summoned Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal on Saturday to spell out the airline's plan.

"With a 20% market share, Kingfisher carries one crore domestic flyers a year. This roughly translates into eightnine lakh passengers a month. If flights are cut by half, 4 lakh passengers will be left in the lurch. Other airlines are also flying with over 80% occupancy and do not have excess capacity to absorb the passengers booked on Kingfisher's cancelled flights," said a senior government official. When asked, Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal did not comment on the proposed cancellation of flights in coming days.

The problem has worsened as some airlines are not even comfortable in taking passengers of Kingfisher's cancelled flights as they are not sure of getting paid. A seniorAir Indiaofficial said: "We asked Kingfisher to provide corporate guarantee so that if the airline fails to pay us, the UB Group can pay. But Kingfisher did not give that guarantee and we are not carrying their passengers.

To fill the gap, theDGCAhas asked airports to provide alist of unutilised slots so that other airlines may be allowed to fly in those time slots. Even Mumbai airport - the most constrained in the country with no free slots - has suddenly unutilised slots with Kingfisher cancelling flights. "We have only two international slots that are not being used and they belong to Kingfisher's cancelled flights. Similarly , there is no free domestic slot but a lot of flights are being cancelled now," said an airport official.

source: TOI