Kingfisher CEO asks staff to return to work

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines Ltd chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal on Tuesday made an appeal to employees, asking them to believe in the carrier and return to work.

“We need you to help us to have any chance of getting back to normalcy. DGCA (the drectorate general of civil aviation, the sector’s regulator) has issued us a show cause notice due to disruptions which resulted in inconvenience to traveling public. Without all of you, without exception, coming back to work, we will have no way forward. We have currently announced suspension of operations until October 12th and sincerely hope that we will able to present a viable plan to DGCA to allow us to resume operations on 13 October,” Aggarwal said in a email to employees late Tuesday.

Aggarwal said, “During these months, UB Group has continued to support the airline by infusing over Rs.1,100 crore in the airline in the last six months. We will work relentlessly to get fresh investment into Kingfisher Airlines in the next few months. For that we need your support and your patience. We are aware it is a big ask but no potential investor will put his money in an airline that is not operational; neither will our esteemed guests come back to us unless we commence operations soon. This does not mean we will not remit salaries during these months,” he said adding he understands, “the pain that all of you and your families have gone through over the last year due to delay in payment of salaries, we can only tell you in utmost sincerity that this situation pains us immensely too.”

Policy changes are showing some hope, he said,

“There are positive developments that give us confidence in our future plans. The revenue authorities have lifted the freeze on some of our accounts that will allow access to some of our bank accounts immediately. The Consortium of Banks are equally anxious to see us resume operations. We are in constant dialogue with our fellow team members who are striking work, to arrive at a viable solution so that we can restore operations to work towards our future. Also, post the announcement by the Government of India permitting Foreign Direct Investment in domestic airlines by foreign airlines, the dialogue with potential investors has gathered momentum. Even non-strategic investors are showing interest in investing in Kingfisher Airlines, which is a good sign,” Aggarwal said.

The carrier was earlier issued a guidance by DGCA not to sell tickets.

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