Kingfisher employees strike work over salaries, some flights delayed

The cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines faced fresh trouble after its ground staff and technicians went on a strike at the Delhi airport on Wednesday.

The cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines faced fresh trouble after its ground staff and technicians went on a strike at the Delhi airport on Wednesday.

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The strike by the airline employees was against the non-payment of salaries for the last three months, sources said. Though the nearly two-day-long strike didn’t lead to any flight cancellations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, some flights were delayed by two to three hours.

According to sources at the airport, the strike was called off by Thursday afternoon. “Though many employees had joined the strike, additional staff was called in to maintain normal operations at Delhi,” an airport official said. “There were, however, no voluble protests by the employee either inside or outside the airport,” he said.

With the airline using a backup team for technical maintenance of the aircraft, a team from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation visited the airport to check if the additional staff was checking aircraft for clearance properly. Though the issue was resolved by afternoon, many evening flights of Kingfisher were also delayed.
“We haven’t received salaries since December 2011. It has become extremely difficult to run our households,” said a Kingfisher technician.