Employees of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) have set a deadline of 8 pm on April 03, 2012 for the management to pay salary for two months to February 2012. This was sent in response to Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya’s letter to employees on April 01, 2012.
Employees said that they wanted the company to pay March 2012 salaries by April 20, 2012. Kingfisher Airlines employees have not been paid salary since December 2011.
“KFA employees have come to a point where operations have become unsafe due to stress caused by our financial constraints,” employees said in the response.
Meanwhile, at least five Kingfisher Airlines flights out of Mumbai and Delhi were cancelled on Monday as a section of staff did not report for duty to demand immediate payment of salary and allowance backlog. As some pilots and other staff did not report for work to press for their demands, a meeting between the protestors and the airline's top management was urgently convened at a hotel in suburban Mumbai to resolve the situation.
Earlier, Kingfisher Airlines said that it would resume payment of staff salaries starting this week after tax authorities unfroze its bank accounts, the airline's chairman and managing director, Vijay Mallya, said in a letter to employees.
Kingfisher's bank accounts were frozen by India's tax authorities in February which restricted the carrier's ability to make salary and other payments to ensure smooth running of its daily operations, resulting in the grounding of several flights.
The bank accounts were unfrozen on Sunday after the airline paid a total of Rs64 crore to various tax authorities before March 31, Mallya said.
The carrier's junior staff will be paid on Wednesday, while all pilots and engineers will be paid on April 9 and April 10, Mallya told employees.
'My only focus now is to start paying your seriously overdue salaries,' said Mallya.
Kingfisher owes $1.3 billion to banks, including the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank
Mallya is under pressure from his airline's lenders to inject equity into Kingfisher, which has slashed its flight schedule and grounded most of its fleet.
ICICI Bank has asked the embattled airline to top up its loan security or adjust the loan amount after the ailing carrier's stock was pounded in recent weeks.
JP Morgan said last week that pricing power has come back to Indian airlines, but rising oil prices and a weakening rupee will continue to hurt profitability of carriers.
“Going forward, we only see limited aircraft additions, driven mainly by low-cost carriers. Against this backdrop, airlines have been able to raise fares by 10-12 percent in Mar-12,” it said
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Employees said that they wanted the company to pay March 2012 salaries by April 20, 2012. Kingfisher Airlines employees have not been paid salary since December 2011.
“KFA employees have come to a point where operations have become unsafe due to stress caused by our financial constraints,” employees said in the response.
Meanwhile, at least five Kingfisher Airlines flights out of Mumbai and Delhi were cancelled on Monday as a section of staff did not report for duty to demand immediate payment of salary and allowance backlog. As some pilots and other staff did not report for work to press for their demands, a meeting between the protestors and the airline's top management was urgently convened at a hotel in suburban Mumbai to resolve the situation.
Earlier, Kingfisher Airlines said that it would resume payment of staff salaries starting this week after tax authorities unfroze its bank accounts, the airline's chairman and managing director, Vijay Mallya, said in a letter to employees.
Kingfisher's bank accounts were frozen by India's tax authorities in February which restricted the carrier's ability to make salary and other payments to ensure smooth running of its daily operations, resulting in the grounding of several flights.
The bank accounts were unfrozen on Sunday after the airline paid a total of Rs64 crore to various tax authorities before March 31, Mallya said.
The carrier's junior staff will be paid on Wednesday, while all pilots and engineers will be paid on April 9 and April 10, Mallya told employees.
'My only focus now is to start paying your seriously overdue salaries,' said Mallya.
Kingfisher owes $1.3 billion to banks, including the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank
Mallya is under pressure from his airline's lenders to inject equity into Kingfisher, which has slashed its flight schedule and grounded most of its fleet.
ICICI Bank has asked the embattled airline to top up its loan security or adjust the loan amount after the ailing carrier's stock was pounded in recent weeks.
JP Morgan said last week that pricing power has come back to Indian airlines, but rising oil prices and a weakening rupee will continue to hurt profitability of carriers.
“Going forward, we only see limited aircraft additions, driven mainly by low-cost carriers. Against this backdrop, airlines have been able to raise fares by 10-12 percent in Mar-12,” it said
....more info