Kingfisher ready to axe 50 percent staff amid cash crunch

New Delhi, Mar 27: With the financial crunch threatening to bring down the King of Good times - Kingfisher, Tuesday saw a major move from the beleaguered airline when it decided to pull out all its flights from Lucknow to Delhi and Mumbai. It also has plans to lay off close to 50 per cent of its current employees.

According to sources, the announcement regarding the massive cut down of its work force is expected on Tuesday evening. Vijay Mallya owned Kingfisher airlines has been at the receiving end of brickbats from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for failing to pay outstanding dues it owes. The Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had also issued a warning to the cash-strapped airlines.

Ajit Singh also added that he will summon Mallya once again to ensure that the safety and passenger convenience is not being compromised.

The news of the job cuts come at a time when the airline was unable to pay staff salaries since the last few months. Sources have been quoted as saying that a certain percentage of job-cuts was “inevitable” since the airline had drastically slashed its flight schedule and was only operating with 16 of its 64 aircraft's.

There are also speculations that the airline will shut down in a phased manner keeping the government in the know-how while shutting down the airline's stations across the country. The DGCA, meanwhile is yet to submit its report on whether the airline's operating license needs to be suspended or not.

In actuality, the percentage of employees to be sacked will be lower than 50 per cent. But the fact remains that lots of employees have already called it quits.

OneIndia News