New Delhi:
Under fire for large-scale cancellation of flights, beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines' promoter Vijay Mallya tonight offered his unconditional apology to inconvenienced passengers. "We tried to reach as many as possible, we tried to make alternative bookings, refunds," Mr Mallya told NDTV.
(Vijay Mallya speaks to NDTV on Kingfisher crisis)Fliers have had a nightmarish weekend that spilled over to Monday after Kingfisher cancelled 30 flights today, most of them from Mumbai. The cash-strapped carrier today conceded that the mess in its operations was due to the Income Tax department attaching its properties.
Kingfisher passengers in Delhi said information from the airline has been slow in coming; many said they landed up at the airport to learn that their flights had been cancelled. But in Mumbai, things were less chaotic than they were yesterday. There were fewer angry passengers at the airport, many having rescheduled their travel or just switched carriers.
But Mr Mallya insists that he will not shut down the private carrier, which is struggling to stay afloat following the large-scale flight disruptions.
"I don't think it's an option to just give up and exit and close down. I don't think it will happen. I don't think the government wants it either," Mr Mallya said, in his first public reaction to the latest crisis that has gripped his cash-strapped airline.
"We have never asked for a bailout. I would never have even thought about it. I know exactly the constraints in this country vis-a-vis private enterprise. So this entire bailout issue is media making...We have asked banks to consider our proposal to provide more working capital," he said, making it clear that the airline has never asked for a bailout from the government.
Mr Mallya's clarification comes after Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh ruled out bailout for Kingfisher as it is a private carrier. In the past, the government has bailed out the national carrier, Air India, on repeated occasions. "Everybody knew that Kingfisher has financial problems...The government is not going to ask banks to bail out any private company. Kingfisher has presented a business plan to banks, let us see," he said earlier today.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Aggarwal, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline, has been asked to meet the regulator for aviation, the DGCA, on Tuesday morning over the sudden cancellation of flights. The private carrier has already said it is now offering passengers a full refund.
With nearly 50 per cent of its flights were cancelled over the weekend, gone were the lame excuses about aircraft being grounded by bird hits. Instead, a frank admission followed: "The prime reason for the current disruption in our flight schedules is the sudden attachment of our bank accounts by the IT department. We are in dialogue with the tax authorities to agree to a payment plan and get the bank accounts unfrozen at the earliest. We are appealing to them to see reason that inconvenience to the travelling public is not in anybody's interests. Employee salaries can be paid and the grounded aircraft can be recovered quicker once the bank accounts are unfrozen and the schedule restored on priority."
(Read entire statement)Kingfisher said it expects to return in the next 2-3 days to its regular schedule of about 240 daily flights. This is the second time in four months that Kingfisher has cancelled a large number of flights without informing the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), a violation of basic guidelines.
"We have received reports about large-scale cancellations. They are bound to inform us when they cut their schedule. But they have not done so," DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan said, adding, "We are gathering information from all the centres. Once we get this, we will decide what to do." Aviation rules require operators to have prior approval of the DGCA to curtail their flight schedules. Mr Bhushan said the DGCA had sent messages to all other airlines to accommodate passengers stranded due to the Kingfisher cancellations. "They have to do this without enhancing the fares," he said.
Explaining why the airline did not inform aviation regulator DGCA about flight cancellations. Mr Mallya today said, "The I-T authorities very suddenly froze our bank accounts. The inevitable disruptions had to happens. There was no time or no chance to reach out either to the DGCA or perhaps adequately to our guests who were booked on our flights," Mr Mallya said.
Kingfisher declared losses of 444 crores in the third quarter of this year - up from 254 crores a year ago. Kingfisher's current debt is close to 1.3 billion dollars or Rs. 7,057.08 crore. It has been lobbying hard with the government to allow foreign airlines to buy into Indian carriers, a proposal the government is now trying to push through as the country's biggest airlines show bleeding balance sheets. "We are in dialogue with the tax authorities. We have pointed out to them that this drastic action of freezing bankaccounts causes huge public inconvenience. Apart from the fact that if our flights get disrupted on a continued basis, then our revenue gets affected," Mr Mallya added.
A group of 18 banks, led by the State of Bank of India (SBI), that have lent to Kingfisher met on Friday to discuss the carrier's financial state and sources said Kingfisher hoped the banks would provide it with some working capital soon. There is no official word from either the lending banks or the airline on this yet.