Kingfisher Airlines Crisis: More Flights Cancelled; Shares Drop 20 Percent

Operations of India's Kingfisher Airlines continued to be disrupted with at least 30 flights cancelled Tuesday morning.

Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal was summoned by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to explain large-scale the disruptions in operations. At least 100 flights have been cancelled in recent days.

Kingfisher lost $89.6 million in the fiscal third quarter that ended in December. Its shares plunged as much as nearly 20 percent Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, 13 flights were cancelled in Mumbai, eight were cancelled in Kolkata and four in Delhi, leaving many passengers stranded. Kingfisher Airlines operated only 16 of its 64 planes across various sectors on Monday.

Kolkata and the North East stations were shut down. The next domestic centre likely to shut down is Hyderabad. Internationally, flight operations to Bangkok, Dhaka and Kathmandu have been shut.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya has apologized to fliers affected by its sudden flight cancellations.

At the same time, he confirmed that the airlines would not be shutting down. Closing down is not an option. It will not happen, he said.

In addition, he blamed freezing of bank accounts by income tax authorities as the reason for cancellation of flights.

Also Kingfisher has been lobbying hard with the government of India to allow foreign airlines to buy into Indian carriers.

India's Civil Aviation Ministry too has held an emergency meeting over Kingfisher crisis. Talking to reporters Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said, We don't know Kingfisher's plans (as of now). We are waiting for their plans.