The grounded Kingfisher Airlines will have to produce letters of comfort from banks as well as the Income-Tax and Service Tax Departments before the authorities take a view on renewing its licence.
Apart from this, it will have to pay a substantial amount towards settling nine months of unpaid salaries.
This message was conveyed to the airline’s promoter and Member of Parliament Vijay Mallya and the airline’s top brass, including its Chief Executive Officer, Sanjay Aggarwal, at meetings here with senior Civil Aviation Ministry and Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials.
The airline’s operations were suspended on October 1 last year, and its operating licence lapsed on December 31.
The decision to seek letters of comfort was taken as a consortium of banks, led by the State Bank of India, is yet to recover the Rs 7,000 crore they had lent to the airline.
Kingfisher has also defaulted on payment of dues to the Income-Tax and Service Tax Departments.
Aviation authorities want to prevent a situation where they start the process of renewing Kingfisher’s operating licence and then have banks or Government departments saying they are not willing to allow the airline to resume services as their dues have not been cleared.
The consortium of banks has indicated it will engage solicitors to advise it in the loan recovery process.
Neither the officials of the Aviation Ministry nor the DGCA specified the number of months for which Kingfisher has to pay wages to its employees.
But Mallya is believed to have said that the employees will be paid at least six months back-wages before the airline restarts operations.
The airline’s promoter is hoping to restart operations by pumping in funds garnered through the sale of his liquor company USL to UK-based Diageo, and has conveyed this to the Ministry.
ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in