Kingfisher Airlines Faces Prolonged Shutdown
Kingfisher CEO Vijay Mallya has not been able to pay his employees in months…
Kingfisher Airlines faces a lengthy shutdown if the cash-strapped and debt-ridden carrier is unable to pay its employees’ salaries.
Kingfisher ceased operations on Monday amid labor strife and reports of violence between workers and airline management. The airline said they would resume operations after Thursday but that may not happen.
The Times of India reports:
‘The government is taking a tougher stance after allowing the airline to operate for months without paying salaries, although it has stopped short of forcing a closure of the heavily indebted carrier. Kingfisher has debt of $1.4 billion, owed mostly to government-controlled banks including State Bank of India, the country’s top lender.
“There is a stalemate,” Vikrant Patkar, a Mumbai-based pilot in command, told reporters on Wednesday after a meeting with Kingfisher’s chief executive and chief operating officers.
“The company has refused to pay us seven months of salary. So we will not let any flight to operate at least from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore,” he said.
The airline, controlled by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, won’t get the government’s approval to resume flying before it pays staff salaries and submits an acceptable recovery plan, a senior official at the aviation regulator told reporters on Tuesday, declining to be identified as the negotiations are private.
“This is going to last for a long time,” said Sharan Lillaney, an aviation analyst at Angel Broking in Mumbai.’
The airline is reported to be $1.4 billion in debt.
MORE…
Category: Airnation
This is the end.
I think you are right.
If the owner liquidated his holdings, he could at least pay his staff. He’s probably financially insulated, but it would be the right thing to do. What a total dirtbag.
Vijay Mallya is not a dirt bag.
I shall recant my former statement. I do not know Mr. Mallya well enough to determine if he is a dirt bag or not.
Speedbird 95; if your boss owed you 7 months salary while he lived his opulent lifestyle, what pray tell would you refer to him as? Irresponsible, arrogant, elitist, morally nihilistic……
Are you a unionized worker? If you don’t like him don’t fly for him its has simple as that.
For the sake of conversation; no, I am not a unionized worker. I’m an aviation professional who has NEVER been member to any union, with over ten years in the aviation community and the last four spent in non-executive management.
You didn’t answer my question. Don’t you agree that Mr. Mallya has a legal and ethical obligation to pay his employees for the work they have performed?
“no, I am not a unionized worker. I’m an aviation professional who has NEVER been member to any union, with over ten years in the aviation community and the last four spent in non-executive management.” Ok so your not a idiot.
“Don’t you agree that Mr. Mallya has a legal and ethical obligation to pay his employees for the work they have performed?” I don’t approve that Kingfisher has not paid there employees for 7 months, that being said if the airline can’t pays its employees I personally don’t think its up to the CEO to pay them whether or not he has the money to do so.
Actually I should rephrase here is what I have said:
“that being said if the airline can’t pays its employees I personally don’t think its up to the CEO to pay them whether or not he has the money to do so.”
and here is what I should have said:
“that being said if the airline can’t pays its employees its up to the shareholders to pay the employees, if Mr. Mallya is a shareholder then he should help to pay (but he should not be the only one helping to pay the employees) but if he is just the CEO then he has no reason to pay out of his pocket the employees.”
Speedbird 95 (is this your new alias now?),
When you write that Phil “isn’t an idiot” because he’s not union, you’re indirectly suggesting that union members are idiots. You should be aware that unionized workers are the only ones that still have jobs with major airlines. I’d hardly call them idiots.
Secondly, NOT ONCE did Phil suggest that the CEO should pay his staff with his own money. If you actually read his comment you would have noticed he clearly suggests “liquidating” the company’s assets to find the money. And CEO made the decision to let his pilots’ fly, very well knowing they wouldn’t be paid- this was a real “dirt-bag” thing to do.
“You should be aware that unionized workers are the only ones that still have jobs with major airlines. I’d hardly call them idiots.” Jetblue is a major airline and it is 100% union-less so you are kinda wrong on what you said there. In MY very personal opinion unionized workers are idiots yes.
“And CEO made the decision to let his pilots’ fly, very well knowing they wouldn’t be paid- this was a real “dirt-bag” thing to do.” The CEO did indeed keep the airline flying even if it did not have the financial support its employees, but the employees where not any smarter as they kept on working for Kingfisher for 7 months with out being paid before doing something. In my opinion both sides are to blame.
JetBlue is a young airline. Their pilots will be unionized once they receive an offer they can accept. At present, their salaries are quite poor in relation to other US carriers of similar size, and this is undoubtedly due to their lack of negotiation ability without a union. JetBlue F/O rate year one is $47/hr. At year 12, F/O rate is only $108/hr. For comparison, year one F/O rate at Southwest is $57/hr, while at year 12 F/O rate is $150/hr. Delta F/O rate year one is $55/hr while at year 12 F/O rate is $142. Compared to pilots working for airlines of similar stature, those working for JetBlue are making the lowest rate. I’m not sure what galaxy you’re living in, but in this galaxy, those who choose better pay, benefits and job security are not considered “idiots”.
And are you SERIOUSLY going to blame the employees of Kingfisher for coming to work?? They have CONTRACTS! Flying for the airline is their JOB! What did you expect them to do, go on strike?
Your comments are without a doubt the most rude, ignorant and warped that have ever been forced upon this site. You’re not fooling anyone with your “name-change” from EE-IBB or whatever it was, and i find it amazing that we can identify you simply by the bigotry that you post. You seriously need to reflect on the way you express yourself, because you are incredibly offensive. I know you “hate us Americans” (per one of your recent rants on another article) but at least we have respect for others. If i were your parent (and i assume you’re a youngin’) i would be absolutely EMBARRASSED to read the bigotry you express on a public domain.
If Jetblue plilots wanted to be unionized to would have already found a way to get unionized. Jetblue is 12 years old its not a “young airline” most airline that fail go down when they are much younger, Southwest was unionized (is currently one of (if not) the most unionized airlines out there and they where so since there beginning so don’t tell that the reason that Jetblue is not unionized is because there airline is young (that is in my opinion a bunch of BS). At Delta only the pilots and dispatchers are unionized and everybody that works there seems happy and well paid. At Westjet pilots are unionized but not the F/A’s and again everybody seems well paid and happy.
Kid, when you grow up a little and get a job you’ll realize that your merit-less “opinions” are skewed DRASTICALLY. It’s evident you have no experience in the aviation industry (or industry at that), for if you did, your “rants” would make a little more sense to the rest of us who know what we’re talking about. From what i can determine, you’ve YET to contribute one single factual or relevant comment on here (and yes, i’m counting all of your rants under all of your previous alias “user names”) and for some unapparent reason, you’re unable to see that the rest of us DON’T CARE about your merit-less “opinions”!
Chris,
I gave up arguing with Speedbird. Calling union employees idiot and defending the actions of this CEO have destroyed his credibility with me, and with it my inclination to continue to have a civil debate.
My cajun great uncle always used to say ‘Never argue with someone who lacks the intelligence or rationality to realize when they are wrong.’ I’m paraphrasing that a bit and cleaning up the cajun drawl, but you get the point.
“defending the actions of this CEO”: Since when is saying: “In my opinion both sides are to blame.” Defending the CEO? And as I know of I can have my opinion about unions and not get blamed for it.
Phil, “Speedbird 95″ is just EI-EBB’s new alias name. He’s the same person who wrote that he “hated Americans” a few weeks ago on another article. He’s just a kid (another user found his info somewhere) so i don’t know why we even bother responding to his bigotry. Your uncle’s quote is very true!
My Uncle?????????????????
PHIL’S uncle. PHIL’S. That comment was clearly directed towards PHIL. NOT YOU.
My God, you are a lost cause. Why don’t you have ANY ability to pink up on social ques? I supposed even a blind squirrel can find an acorn…