Kingfisher flight cancellations: DGCA seeks explanations

New Delhi: India's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has asked Kingfisher Airlines Ltd to explain why it cancelled scheduled flights without permission. Kingfisher's abrupt move comes at the peak of the travel season leaving passengers scrambling to book flights elsewhere without much prior notice.

Kingfisher's cancellation rate is also increasing by the day with 50 flights cancelled on Tuesday, more than the 12 it had cancelled on Monday and four that it cancelled on Sunday.

Yesterday, the carrier had let it be known, though informally, it would cancel 31 services daily for 12 days, till 19 November.

''We will be issuing them a show-cause notice for cancelling flights and causing passenger inconvenience,'' EK Bharat Bhushan, director general, DGCA, said. He also said the carrier had not informed the regulator of any cancellations, thereby violating rules that govern scheduled airlines.

So far, the financially beleaguered carrier has been trotting out all kinds of reasons for the cancellations other than the most likely one - that it does not have the cash to pay vendors for services as it has been put on cash-and –carry basis by all of them. These include fuel suppliers and the Airports Authority of India.

As for a formal explanation, the carrier said Tuesday it had cut frequency on some of its flights that run mostly over the weekend or were on routes where demand has been slow.