NEW DELHI: Financial troubles of the ‘King of Good Times’ notwithstanding, Kingfisher Airlines has run into bad luck as well. With a pilot in Chennai testing positive for a breath-analyser test, a bird hit in Mumbai, employee protests in Kolkata, a windshield crack in an aircraft and another ATR aircraft being grounded on Sunday morning in Delhi, the company’s cup of woes is running over.
The airline, which had already curtailed its operations in the winter schedule, went on to cancel several flights due to unserviceable aircraft and labour problems.
Chennai operations of the airline were the least affected. An airline source confirmed to Express in Chennai that only two flights from the city—one to Delhi and the other to Coimbatore—had not flown as per schedule.
While a cracked windshield of an aircraft in Delhi hit operations in the past few days, another ATR was grounded on Sunday owing to engineering trouble. Kingfisher had announced 60 flights from Delhi, of which it operated only 30 to 31 on Sunday. International flights to Bangkok and Kathmandu were completely knocked off the list.
The airline’s entire Kolkata operations were cancelled on Sunday, though its schedule on the DGCA website showed 31 flights operating out of the city. Airline insiders said this was done owing to employee protests in the city and a requirement for the consolidation and reconfiguration of aircraft.