Kingfisher set for more trouble

New Delhi The Indian government Tuesday ruled out any move to help stabilise the floundering Kingfisher Airlines even as daily flight cancellations rose to more than 50. "The government is not going to give any bailout. We are not going to ask banks or the private industry for that matter. Their bank accounts have also been seized," Ajit Singh, the civil aviation minister, said yesterday, On top of that, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the civil aviation regulator, summoned airline's chief Vijay Mallya for an emergency meeting after receiving reports about large-scale cancellations. It had served a show-cause notice to Kingfisher for cancelling flights without informing either DGCA or passengers. "We will take action under Rule 140 (A) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937," a DGCA official later said, Under the rule, the operators require prior approval of the DGCA for curtailing their flight schedules. The maximum punitive measure for violation is cancellation of the flight permit of an airline. "We will operate the full schedule on our booking system within a couple of days. We are initiating steps to get the freeze on our bank accounts removed and are in talks with the income tax authorities," a Kingfisher spokesperson said, Kingfisher owes around Rs1.9 billion (Dh125.89 million) to the tax authorities and Rs65 billion to banks. In a statement, Mallya said, "I apologise profusely to the affected passengers. We are not in a comfortable cash position. [But] we are not ashamed of it." Mallya said he was looking for foreign investors to revive his airline.