Kingfisher Airlines CEO to meet employees today

New Delhi, Oct 4 (ANI): Kingfisher Airlines CEO Sanjay Aggarwal will be meeting the employees of the debt-ridden airline here today.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will submit a report on Kingfisher Airlines to the government today.

Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that any decision would be taken only after that.

Aggarwal had earlier said the airline is in talks with employees, and will make a call on when to lift the partial lockout on October 4. After meeting with DGCA chief Arun Mishra, Aggarwal said: "We will evaluate, we are in dialogue with the employees and we'll decide in the next couple of days as to what the next steps are and we shared those steps with the DG.

Aggarwal further said that salary for half the employees had been delivered, but the problem they were facing was dealing with some disgruntled employees, who were stopping others from returning to work.

"For the month of March about 50 percent of the employees have received the salary, and there are people who are willing to come to work. The problem we are having is that there is a certain, a small group of employees who is preventing the people who are coming to work, from doing there duties," he said.

"We have told people that if you are not fit to come to work or you not able to come to work, they are happy to stay at home, we are not forcing anyone to come to work. But if they choose to prevent other people, who are willing to come to work, from doing what they are supposed to do, we are left with no other option," he added.

Earlier, expressing concerns for air travelers due to the Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) lockout, Ajit Singh had said that the government will not accept any compromise on passenger safety.

Kingfisher Airlines was forced to declare a temporary lockout of its operations till October 4 on Monday evening.

The decision of the airlines came few hours after Ajit Singh warned that the company will not be allowed to fly if safety norms were flouted.

The Kingfisher management, which has not paid salaries to most of its staff since March, had a meeting with employee representatives last week, but failed to give any firm assurance. As per the norms of DGCA, an aircraft cannot take off unless its airworthiness is certified by the airline's engineers. Kingfisher is saddled with huge debts and has grounded most of its fleet. (ANI)