Kingfisher Airlines cancels 20 more flights, to submit fresh schedule to DGCA

Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya's cash-strapped carrier, cancelled another 20 flights on Wednesday, amid reports that the State Bank of India (SBI) will lend Rs 1,500 crore to keep the airline afloat.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is expected to brief Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Wednesday on the ailing carrier's plans to restore its services.


Kingfisher is expected to submit a fresh flight schedule to the DGCA, which had asked it to come up with a "realistic" schedule which can be operated by 28 of its 64 aircraft.

DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan would meet Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Wednesday to brief him about the discussions he had with the Kingfisher top brass on Tuesday and the airline's plan to restore its schedule over the next few days.

Among the flights cancelled on Wednesday morning are 14 from Mumbai and two from New Delhi.

Reports said the airlines was partially restoring its operations from Kolkata especially flights from there to the Northeast. All operations from Kolkata were shut down from Friday night.

The DGCA chief had on Tuesday said the airlines will have to file a new schedule instead of a truncated one in the next 24 hours.

The cash-strapped carrier, facing the wrath of Income Tax authorities which has frozen its bank accounts, was operating only 28 of its 64 planes, leading to large-scale disruption of its schedule.

At least 40 flights were cancelled across its national network on Tuesday.

Kingfisher, which suffered a loss of Rs 1,027 crore in 2010-11 and has a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore, posted a Rs 444 crore loss in third quarter this financial year.

With inputs from PTI