Kingfisher Airlines appears to have pushed back plans of getting back to the skies till October 8, going by the flights actually on offer on its Web site. Talks between the airline employees and management failed on Wednesday.

Early on Wednesday, the airline’s official Web site was offering tickets from October 5. The airline declared a partial lockout on Monday night and said that all its flights will be suspended till October 4.

But by late Wednesday evening, travel agents said that they had started sending out advisories to passengers that no booking will be made on Kingfisher till October 7. The airline’s Web site also started to say it was not accepting bookings till October 7. The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation is firm that it will not allow the airline to fly till the regulator is satisfied with the operational preparedness of the airline. According to agency reports, in an interim report filed to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the DGCA wanted to know how airline officials would maintain operational preparedness when they resume flights.

Claiming they had not received any official communication, travel agents said they were selling the airline’s tickets from October 8.

Pratik Mazumder, Head of Marketing and Strategic Alliances, Yatra.com, said it has started selling Kingfisher tickets from October 8 onwards. “The airline is getting bookings which equal its market share,” he said.

Said Sanjay Bhasin, Managing Director, Goibibo: “We are dependent on the Amadeus system of bookings (global distribution system that sells tickets for multiple airlines). We can remove the tickets only if the concerned airline comes and tells us. In this case, we haven't got any notification from Kingfisher Airlines so far.”

Kingfisher Airlines officials were not available for comments.

>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in

> nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW