Ajit: Kingfisher can’t fly until it clears dues

Kingfisher Airlines would not be allowed to fly till it clears all its dues, aviation minister Ajit Singh has said.

Kingfisher Airlines would not be allowed to fly till it clears all its dues, aviation minister Ajit Singh has said.

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“KFA can’t be allowed to fly without settling its dues. Just paying the employees is not sufficient... DGCA has said all stakeholders need to be satisfied,” he said. Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal met aviation secretary KN Srivastava on Tuesday.

The airline needs to obtain statements from creditors that they do not object to resumption of flights, Singh said.

The minister said the airline did not have any concrete funding plan and needs R1,000 crore to resume operations. He said settlement of Airports Authority of India’s dues was “non-negotiable”. It is learnt that the aviation secretary told the KFA CEO that a decision on its plea to resume operations could be taken only after it paid its staff their salary dues.