Kingfisher to pay January salaries

Worried over the possibility of its employees dragging the airline management to the Labour court over non-payment of salaries, Kingfisher Airline Chairman Vijya Mallya has "assured" the staff of paying their January salaries from Wednesday onwards, airline sources said on Monday.

In his e-mail message Mallya also said that a "significant" portion of the February salaries would be paid by the month-end, they said.

"Mallya said in his May 5 communication to the employees that the airline will start remitting January salaries from May 9 onwards," sources said quoting from the e-mail message.



Mallya's communication to employees comes following the airline's pilots serving a deadline of May 8 to the management for paying January salaries or face strike.

Besides, they had demanded that the management should also clear the remaining salary in a phased manner by June 30.

A section of the staff, including pilots and engineers, had last week said that they were contemplating to move to the Labour court to seek its intervention and expedite settlement of their dues.

Mallya, meanwhile, has also expressed hope that his airline would return to global distribution network of IATA shortly, the sources said.

Beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines was suspended for non-payment of dues by the IATA in March from participating in a system which enables airlines to settle their interline billings globally.

Airlines and airline-associated companies join the IATA Clearing House to settle accounts for services provided by them to other airlines or firms.