Kingfisher talks with staff fail, shares fall

MUMBAI: The crisis at India’s ailing Kingfisher Airlines deepened yesterday, its third straight day of grounded flights, after the firm failed to persuade striking employees back to work, a staff source said.
With fears mounting for its future, the airline held emergency talks with workers but said they would be unable to pay the full seven months salary owed to some employees, a pilot at the meeting told AFP, declining to be named.
“They have also not committed on when they can pay us. Until we get our salaries, we will continue with the strike,” he said.
The airline’s shares closed 4.89 percent down to Rs. 14.6 rupees, after India’s civil aviation regulator said the company cannot fly again until it submits a revival plan and meets all safety norms.
Kingfisher shares have fallen 9.42 percent this week.
With talks failing, it is unclear if Kingfisher will be able to resume operations on Friday, as initially indicated when the company declared a partial lock-out on Monday night, blaming unrest by striking workers.
The Bangalore-headquartered airline said a minority group of “recalcitrant employees” had forced a “complete paralysis” of operations, leading to the cancellation Monday of all flight operations initially for three days.
Kingfisher’s engineers went on strike last Friday to protest against not being paid since March, with some pilots and other employees joining the walkout on Monday, according to media reports.
The carrier, which has a debt of nearly $ 1.3 billion, is desperately scouting for a foreign airline to pump in fresh capital to keep it flying.
The airline’s Chief Executive Sanjay Agarwal and spokesman Prakash Mirpuri were unavailable to comment to AFP on when operations would resume.
Agarwal was summoned to meet the aviation regulator chief on Tuesday in New Delhi, where he said he was “hopeful” of resolving the situation in the next few days, the Press Trust of India reported.
The airline, which owes millions of dollars in taxes as well as money to suppliers, lenders and staff, has been forced to drastically cut down its operations in the past year, shutting down international flights completely.
The company was India’s second-largest airline until a year ago but now has a market share of just 3.2 percent, the smallest of the country’s carriers.