More Kingfisher flights cancelled as pilots stay away

MUMBAI/BANGALORE, MARCH 13: 

Twenty-two arrivals and 18 departure cancellations of just one airline at one airport on Tuesday. Things couldn't have gone worse for the 'King of Good Times'!

Flight operations of the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines were further affected on Tuesday as more pilots did not report for duty to protest the delay in their salary payment.

At Bangalore, which normally sees 40-50 movements from Kingfisher on a day, there were very few take-offs or landings by the airline on Tuesday, said a spokesperson.

At least four flights that were scheduled to take off from Mumbai on Tuesday were cancelled. The domestic sectors affected due to the flight cancellations were Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

On Monday, nearly 50 flights were grounded after the pilots of the airline did not report for work. According to sources at various airports, the airline had cancelled 11 flights from Mumbai, nine from Delhi, five each from Kolkata and Bangalore, and two from Chennai.

The company in a press statement said it operated about 145 flights (out of its highly truncated daily schedule of almost 200 flights), while others were either combined or cancelled.

FARES FLY NORTH

With more flights getting disrupted, air-fares ruled high on Tuesday too. A Mumbai-based travel agent said that the air-fares on the Mumbai-Delhi sector were close to Rs 10,000 for the day, while the Mumbai-Bangalore seats were all sold out in the peak travel hours.

At Bangalore, a passenger found to his dismay that a Bangalore-Chennai air ticket for an afternoon flight came with a Rs 14,000-price tag for a journey scheduled for March 26.

A Bangalore-based travel agent said that the airline had lost almost 80 per cent of its market due to its turmoil in the past few months.

"It was in fact the most preferred airline a few months ago, but now passengers are hesitant to fly the airline due to these uncertainties," he added.

Source