Kingfisher Airlines has announced that all its employees have agreed to return to work immediately following almost a month of industrial action that forced the airline to ground all its flights and led the Indian Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to suspend its operating license.
The airline says it will now finalise and present its resumption plan to the DGCA with the hope of flying again soon. It declined to comment further on when flights might restart or what agreement was reached with employees.
The airline grounded all its flights on October 1 after employee unrest about months without payment culminated in action where a member of Kingfisher management was physically attacked, passengers were stranded and a strike initiated. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told the airline that it would not be allowed to operate if safety rules were not being observed (see here).
It then repeatedly extended its grounding of operations (see here). Finally, on October 21, the airline saw its scheduled operator's permit suspended by the DGCA and it closed forward bookings until November 6 (see here).
For more information, visit www.flykingfisher.com
Nicholas Olczak
