Kingfisher Airlines down 5% on employee unrest, strike

NEW DELHI: Kingfisher Airlines Ltd dropped 5 per cent and was locked in lower circuit after the airliner said in a statement it would cancel several flights on Monday due to employee unrest.

At 10:15 am, Kingfisher Airline Ltd dropped 4.7 per cent and was locked in lower circuit at Rs 15.35.

“The airline would proactively cancel flights on Monday as it feared a number of its employees were unlikely to report for work due to threats from other workers,” Reuters reported.

In a separate report, aviation regulator DGCA will review airline's operations in the wake of mass cancellation of its flights, even as a section of the airline’s Mumbai-based pilots joined in the strike by its engineers.

The airline, saddled with huge debt, is currently operating less than 50 flights with seven aircraft.

Kingfisher has been under pressure in the past few trading sessions after the SBI-led consortium of lenders turned down the company’s Rs 200-crore working loan request.

“Banks together have an exposure of nearly Rs 7,000 crore in the airline and the loans have all become non-performing assets since January,” PTI reported. SBI has an exposure of Rs 1,500 crore to Kingfisher Airlines.