Sorting out disruption in flight schedules: Vijay Mallya

With its flight schedules being hit due to agitation by pilots and other staff to protest delays in salary, Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya today said the airline had spoken to the pilots and the matter was being sorted out.

"We spoke to our pilots. We are sorting it out," Mallya told reporters in Parliament House.

"We are facing a serious handicap as our accounts are frozen. We are not asking for bailout from the government but hope for help from banking sector to de-freeze our accounts.To questions on the severe financial crisis Kingfisher was facing, he said.

"Terming the flight disruptions as "planned cancellations", he said, "We do not want to inconvenience our guests."

The airline had yesterday cancelled around 40 flights across its domestic network and clubbed several others as
several pilots and other staffers did not join duty to protest delays in payment of salary.

Kingfisher officials had earlier said that freezing of accounts by tax authorities resulted in the company managing only 80 per cent of the planned schedule.

They had said that flight loads reduced because of the company's limited distribution ability caused by IATA suspension. "We are, therefore, combining some of our flights," officials said.

In February, Kingfisher had filed a new schedule to the regulator Director General of Civil Aviation, reducing the
number of daily flights by almost two-thirds to 175 with the help of 28 aircraft, down from about 460 flights a day with 64
planes.

It has accumulated losses of Rs 6,400 crore and piled up debts of Rs 7,000 crore due to high fuel costs.