The DGCA notice comes after the ailing carrier grounded all its operations and extended the partial lock-out till October 12.
Spelling fresh trouble for Kingfisher Airlines, aviation regulator DGCA is likely to issue a show-cause notice, asking why its flying license should not be suspended or cancelled.
The notice comes after the ailing carrier grounded all operations and extended lockout till October 12 as it failed to resolve with its striking engineers and pilots the deadlock over non-payment of salaries for last seven months.
"The (Kingfisher) management has declared a lockout. DGCA is looking into legal issues and intends to issue a show-cause notice on suspension or cancellation of license. He (DGCA chief) has gone ahead with the notice," said Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, adding that the regulator did so after studying thesafety implications of the strike by the employees of the airline, which had grounded the fleet.
In Delhi and Mumbai, angry staff of the liquor baron Vijay Mallya-owned airline staged protest demonstrations wearing black-bands and carrying placards, to demand speedy disbursal of their dues.
Their protests came in the backdrop of suicide committed by the wife of a Kingfisher employee in national capital on Thursday, apparently due to financial stress due to non-payment of salaries.
Maintaining that the airline would have to satisfy the DGCA on safety before it gets permission to fly again, Singh said, "Some companies strive (to grow), while some fail. Government can close them down or help them."
The airline, which had earlier grounded all operations till October 4, on Thursday night extended it by another eight days blaming the staff for the strike that began Friday last.
"There are a lot of factors involved, including employees' salaries, their disgruntlement and others. If the airline employees are disgruntled, there is an issue of safety," said Singh..
"In order to give them permission to fly, they have to satisfy the DGCA on all these issues. The rest is if the law allows or...if we want to suspend their licence or revoke it, we have to see if the law permits," Singh told reporters.
In Mumbai, an engineer, Krishna Kumar asked "how can the management realistically expect us to work? We have borne this trauma for seven months now." The airline has never turned a profit since its launch in 2005. It has been saddled with a huge loss of over Rs8,000 crore and a debt burden of another over Rs7,000 crore, a large part of which it has not serviced since January.
Several of its aircraft have been either taken away by its lessors or grounded by the Airports Authority of India for non-payment of dues during the past few months.
Meanwhile, the airline has announced in the National Stock Exchange that its Company Secretary, Bharath Raghavan, has quit the company.
Kingfisher, which had a fleet of 64 aircraft several months ago before the crisis engulfed it, is now operating only 10 of them -- seven Airbus A-320s and three turbo-prop ATRs. The number of daily flights have also tumbled from over 400 last year to between 70 and 80.
Its shares also fell 4.7 per cent for the fifth straight day on Friday.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}