BANGALORE: Despite large-scale cancellations, Kingfisher Airlines has claimed all is well within the company. A day after several pilots refused to show up for duty, the shortage of crew forced Kingfisher chairman Vijay Mallya to schedule a meet with the protesting staff on Thursday. In a statement, the company said, “Our prime mission is to maintain schedule integrity by predicting in advance what we can (do) with the sole objective of minimising, if not eliminating, guest inconvenience.”Even though its customers were left in the lurch due to cancellations, the airline claimed that it “tried hard 24X7 to inform guests in advance of cancelled or combined flights and to give them the option of travelling by other airlines or to take a full refund”. But acknowledging and apologising for the inconvenience, the statement stated, “There will inevitably be a small number of guests who are inconvenienced partially because we could not access them personally but only via their agents.”On the reported poor treatment meted out to the staff, the statement said, “Many of our pilots and engineers expressed their disappointment... we not only sincerely apologise to them, our chairman will meet the pilot fraternity in Delhi on Thursday. “Reiterating that the inconvenience was due to freezing of accounts, the company said it was curtailing its overseas operations. “We have already returned one Airbus A 330-200 to the lessor in the UK,” it said.The company that saw hundreds of pilots and staff quitting in the last few months, said it share the pain caused by unpaid salaries and was trying to protect their jobs. The company assured its staff that it was working with the bankers consortium and was not dependent on the SBI. “We fully understand that SBI can only consider additional facilities once our account with its is standard,” it said.It further said, “The government’s final verdict on removing restrictions on investment by a foreign airline within the FDI limit of 49% is awaited.”
Comments
0 comment