Beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines' promoter Vijay Mallya on Monday night said he will not shut down the private carrier which struggled to stay afloat after further large-scale flight disruptions and resignation of pilots.
"Closing down is not an option. It will not happen. Government does not want it to happen. It is not in national interest," Mallya said in his first public reaction to the latest crisis that has gripped his cash-strapped airline.
"Why should we give up as long as we get help. Help is not bailout. We have asked banks to consider our proposal to provide more working capital," he said, making it clear that the airline has never asked for a bailout from the government.
In the context of getting help, the liquor baron referred to the government's decision to allow direct jet fuel imports by the airlines and permit foreign carriers to pick up stake in them. He had lobbied hard with the government on both these issues.
Mallya claimed that the entire issue of bailout was of 'media making'.
Asked about sudden disruption in Kingfisher flights, the UB Group chief said the bank accounts of the airline were frozen 'very suddenly' by the Income Tax authorities over non-payment of tax dues.
"The abrupt disruption was unfortunate because our bank accounts were suddenly frozen by tax authorities. I don't deny we have taxes due. .... The bottomline is we requested for time to pay these dues," Mallya said.
"It was the very sudden attachment of our accounts that obviously crippled us," he said. 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 fiscal.
Flights cancelled
Earlier, while blaming the I-T department's move, the airline said the employees' ‘salaries can be paid and the grounded aircraft can be recovered quicker once the bank accounts are unfrozen and the schedule restored on priority.’
The spokesperson said the company was in talks with the I-T authorities ‘to agree (on) a payment plan and get the bank accounts unfrozen at the earliest. We are appealing to them to see reason that inconvenience to the travelling public is not in anybody's interests.’
Kingfisher's CEO Sanjay Agarwal and top officials have been summoned by the DGCA to appear before them tomorrow to explain the large-scale disruptions in the operations of the cash-strapped carrier.
Over 30 flights were cancelled today, including those to Bangkok, Singapore, Kathmandu and Dhaka, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at various airports across the country. Also, about one-third of its flights were cancelled in six metros on Sunday.
Ruling out any bailout to the airline, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said the government had recently ‘seized their bank accounts also. So our first concern is that flights which are ongoing, passenger safety should not be compromised and then let us see what reply they give. DGCA is inquiring into it.’