A section of debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines' pilots on Saturday went on strike over non-payment of salaries and other dues for the past five months, leading to the cancellation of 40 flights across its network, an airline official said.
Twelve flights from New Delhi, six from Mumbai and three flights from Bangalore have been cancelled apart from many other flights from Chennai, Chandigarh, Dehradun and Dharamsala among others.
"A certain section of employees have decided to stay away from duty due to salary payments not being credited to the bank accounts of all employees. Kingfisher wishes to state that more than 75% of employees have actually received their promised salaries Friday," a Kingfisher official said.
"We have further promised that the balance of our employees will receive their salaries by Monday," the official added.
The passengers booked on these flights have either been re-booked or given refunds, he said.
This is the third time in the last twelve days that the pilots have struck work. The earlier strike on July 11 saw 12 flights getting cancelled.
The strike on July 2 was called off after a few hours with the management promising to pay some sections of staff from July 6.
{{/usCountry}}The strike on July 2 was called off after a few hours with the management promising to pay some sections of staff from July 6.
{{/usCountry}}Kingfisher is, at present, carrying out truncated domestic and international operations with about 15 aircraft, in place of 64.
A large number of its flight engineers have reportedly quit over the past five months, primarily due to delayed payments. In April, around 200 engineers reported sick as a mark of protest over the issue.
The airline, which has not posted profit since inception in May 2005, has reported a loss of Rs. 1,151.50 crore in the March quarter, has a debt of over Rs. 7,500 crore and almost an equal amount of accumulated losses.