AAI threatens cash-and-carry status for Kingfisher
01 Dec 2011
New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has issued a notice to Kingfisher Airlines putting it on cash-and-carry basis from Thursday owing to continued non-payment of dues and charges for services rendered.
Till mid-October outstanding payments were being cleared by the carrier every fortnight.
"Our dues are now over Rs240 crore from Kingfisher and despite repeated reminders, the airline has not paid. We ourselves are facing a cash crunch with both Kingfisher and Air India not paying up. While nothing can be done about AI, we are left with no option but to put Kingfisher on cash-and-carry unless they make some payment," said an AAI official.
Earlier, last month, a cheque issued by Kingfisher to AAI bounced. This follows hard on the heels of a report that a cheque issued to Mumbai international airport operators by the carrier had also bounced.
Airline chairman Vijay Mallya met AAI chief VP Agrawal on Tuesday as being put on a cash-and-carry basis means serious trouble for Kingfisher as the airline will have to pay for each flight before operating them.
A day earlier, Mallya met aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi as well.