Frozen accounts led to flight cancellations, says Kingfisher
The airline conceded for the first time that its flights had been disrupted over the past four days due to payment issues
Kingfisher Airlines on Monday conceded that it has had severe flight disruptions after the income tax department attached its bank accounts last week.
Earlier, the carrier had been claiming bird strikes were responsible for the unusually large number of flight cancellations since Friday, 17 February.
A statement from the debt-ridden airline said the freezing of its bank accounts had “severely affected our ability to make operational payments leading to the present curtailment”.
Employee salaries would be paid and payments to recover grounded planes will be possible only after the bank accounts are unfrozen.
However, it denied that it has approached the government for a bailout.
We reproducing the statement from Kingfisher Airlines below:
Mumbai, February 20, 2012—Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. would like to reiterate and clarify as follows:
1. The prime reason for the current disruption in our flight schedules is the sudden attachment of our bank accounts by the IT department. This has severely affected our ability to make operational payments leading to the present curtailment. The revised schedule has been updated in the system.
2. We are in dialogue with the tax authorities to agree 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.
3. 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.
4. About 15% of our flights operating consistently for the past 3 months have been cancelled and we have done and are doing our best to inform guests in advance of cancellations and clubbing and to re-book them on other carriers.
5. If the guests so desire, we are offering them a full refund.
6. Our teams are in close touch with our travel trade partners to keep them abreast of the disruptions so that they too can, in turn, ensure that guests contacting them / booking via them are kept updated of any changes.
7. We’ve been in touch with the DGCA to keep them informed of the disruptions.
8. We will appear before the DGCA tomorrow and submit all details they want and also a plan to restore the full schedule.
9. We would like to reassure our valued guests that there are absolutely no safety issues with the aircraft that are operating.
10. We have had a constructive meeting with our bank consortium last week.
11. As stated earlier, we have not approached the Government of India for any "bail out".
12. We understand from media that certain positive decisions were taken at a recent GOM meeting which will benefit the industry and also Kingfisher Airlines.
13. We have adequate numbers of flight crew and cabin crew to operate our schedule of flights.
Kingfisher Airlines deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to its valued guests on account of the current disruptions.