Kingfisher Declares Temporary Lockout Till Thursday

On Monday night Kingfisher Airlines declared a temporary lockout and suspended all its flights till Thursday, October 4th.

Earlier in the day the CEO had a meeting with the striking engineers which ended in a stalemate. More than 50 flights were cancelled and operation completely stopped after pilots had joined the striking engineers demanding salary which they were not received since March this year.

In the meeting Mr. Aggarwal confessed that there is no fund to pay the salary to the employees and urged the striking engineers to come back to work otherwise they will stop operation completely.

The decision came after DGDA asked Kingfisher CEO to explain why their flights were cancelled and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh warned Kingfisher that it will not be allowed to fly if safety norms are compromised.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal sent a letter to its employees explaining the situation.

“Dear Team Member,

A series of protracted and unabated incidents of violence, criminal intimidation, assault, wrongful restraint and other illegal acts by a section of non-management Engineering staff and illegally refraining from attending work by a section of non-management Engineering staff and pilots which were all unnecessary and unprovoked commenced yesterday morning and continued today.

As a result of the said illegal actions including the strike, the Company has been unable to operate its flights. Therefore a partial lock-out is declared with immediate effect in respect of the non-management employees belonging to the Engineering and Flight Operations departments. Management will review the situation on October 4, 2012 or the day on which this illegal strike is called off, whichever is earlier. Until such time, the Company is unable to operate flights as a result of the above said illegal actions.

We will keep you informed of further developments.”

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