Kingfisher makes presentation on performance before DGCA

Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, whose losses widened by a whopping 147% in the last quarter, today told aviation regulator DGCA it had curtailed its flight operations due to the grounding of six of its 17 aircraft fleet and pilots' strike.

Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Agarwal made a presentation on the airline's performance, severely impacted by financial distress, before DGCA chief Arun Mishra here, official sources said.

Agarwal is understood to have informed the regulator that payment of pending salaries to pilots, who have been frequently striking work over the issue, has begun today. The pilots are now being paid their March salaries.

Following fears that the airline's safety performance could be adversely affected due to financial crunch, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is carrying out a safety audit of the airline and Agarwal's presentation was part of that process.

The struggling carrier's net loss widened by a whopping 147% to Rs 650.8 crore in the quarter ended June, from Rs 263.5 crore a year ago.

The sources said the airline, which had promised to operate about 120 daily flights this summer season with 17 planes, was operating only 85 flights with 11 aircraft since August 17.

While six aircraft -- three Airbus A-320s and three turboprop ATRs, were grounded, the airline was operating six A-320s and five ATRs, Agarwal told the DGCA.

He said the curtailment of flights had been a result of industrial unrest (strikes by pilots) and grounding of these planes.