Contrary to popular sentiment that debt ridden airline, Kingfisher Airlines would shut shop, employees of the company continue to remain hopeful ahead of Monday’s talks with the management as a section of the staff are now considering scaling down their demands but only if KfA is willing to meet them half way at least.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had on Saturday suspended the licence of KfA, until they resolve all issues hounding the operations of the company, including non payment of over seven months’ salaries to their staff. Pilots of the airline told Express, “the next 24 hours, it would be clear about the future of the airline as well as our own”. Employees also confirmed that they had received communication about the suspension, but the e-mail also said that they were hopeful to resume operations at the earliest.
They also said that most of the conditions of suspension by DGCA were not ‘very different’ from the demands made by the employees.
“We are willing to scale down our demands and resume work but Kingfisher will also have to scale up their offer”, pilots said.
But staff lamented the treatment meted out to them despite their loyalties to KfA during trying times. “We are willing to join work at the earliest but the management has to understand our financial commitments and remunerate us for us to get back into normalcy”, they said.
Though KfA CEO Sanjay Agarwal was to meet staff from Bangalore and Chennai earlier this month, the latter cancelled the meetings, forcing pilots to harden their stand on the issue.