India's civil aviation authority raps Kingfisher for not adhering to flight schedules

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) Struggling to stay afloat after cancelling a large number of flights, India's private air carrier Kingfisher Airlines was today rapped by the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for not adhering to its flight schedules but the aviation regulator made it clear there were no plans to take any punitive action against it for the moment. "Let us not talk of punitive action at the moment. We are more interested to see the airline back on its feet. Our priority is not to punish ... because of the immediate difficulties the travelling public will have to face," DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan told reporters after an almost two-hour meeting with Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal and Executive Vice President Hitesh Patel here. Bhushan was asked whether DGCA would consider action against Kingfisher for flouting Aircraft Rules by not taking its prior approval for drastic curtailment in flights. As over 40 flights were cancelled across the country today, the airline informed DGCA that it had 28 functional aircraft, out of 64 planes in November last. The airline's top brass had been summoned by DGCA to explain the large-scale disruption in its operations and the reasons for the same. "We have had a good meeting. Some more information has been sought by DGCA which will be provided in the next 24 hours," Aggarwal said after the meeting. DGCA asked the two top officials to provide a "realistic" flight schedule the airline can operate with 28 planes. Sources said the airline's explanation that flights were affected due to freezing of its bank accounts by the Income Tax authorities cannot be accepted. Earlier, India's Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said, "We have to hear out Kingfisher. We don't know what their plans are, how they are going to restore normal schedule. Then there are safety issues which they have to answer". The airline had sought permission to operate around 400 flights with 64 aircraft during the current Winter Schedule from November to March. "In November, when they suddenly truncated some of their flights, we had asked them to give their revised schedule. Today, we took stock of the situation and have found that only 28 out of 64 aircraft are operating," the DGCA chief said. With 28 planes, the DGCA estimates the airline would be able to operate 175 flights each week. Regarding stoppage of services to various international stations like Singapore, Bangkok, Kathmandu and Dhaka, Bhushan said the airline assured the regulator that these flights would be resumed gradually over the next week. PTI