KfA lockout to continue till October 20

In yet another blow to financially crippled private carrier Kingfisher Airlines on Friday, not only was its billionaire owner Vijay Mallya served a non-bailable warrant for dishonoured cheques amounting to `10 crore by a Hyderabad court, its staff also refused to report back to duty which led to an extension of ongoing lockout by another week.

The airline’s chief executive officer, Sanjay Aggarwal despite appealing to its employees on October 10 to return to work refused to resume their duties demanding payment of pending wages.

The airline’s management however did not comment on the lockout being extended but said it would let the media know if any such development took place. However sources in the airline maintain that the airline’s management in an internal mail has stated that due to operational reasons all flights across its network will be cancelled till October 20.

KfA declared a lockout on September 28 till October 4 following the strike cancelling its entire flight schedule and extended it till October 12 later. This has now been extended till October 20.

On October 5,  the DGCA issued a show-cause notice to Kingfisher asking why its flying licence should not be suspended or cancelled as it had grounded its entire fleet and failed to offer safe, efficient and reliable service.