Kingfisher’s Rs650-cr plan not enough: DGCA

The financially crippled and grounded Kingfisher Airlines' plan to resume partial services with an investment of Rs650 crore has not been accepted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which said today the amount is not enough to restart operations.

 ''We want an airline to operate in consistent, efficient and reliable manner. The revival plan submitted by the airline has lots of issues regarding lenders and staff payment, which we felt may not lead to reliable services,'' PTI quoted a DGCA official as saying.

''The plan had no provision for payment of airport operators, who want their dues to be paid before the airlines starts flying again,'' the official said.

Four planes of the airline have been de-registered, and there are petitions for de-registering two more planes.

 The revival plan, which Kingfisher chairman and liquor baron Vijay Mallya filed last month with the DGCA, does not include any details on the payment of dues to airports.

On Wednesday, the airline's long unpaid staff had threatened to move the courts seeking the winding up of the airline unless the management disclosed its revival plans to them. Mallya wrote a placatory letter to the employees on Thursday, saying the management is making every effort to get the airline going again.