Weeks after the aviation regulator warned Kingfisher Airlines not to compromise on aviation safety, its promoter, Vijay Mallya, on Wednesday met Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) brass and discussed the financial and operational recovery plan of the cash-strapped airline.
“He (Mallya) has a recovery plan. It is up to us to see that he keeps to the plan,” DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan said after an hour-long meeting.
Sources said the airline’s plans for recapitalisation, restoring its curtailed services and steps being taken by it on safety issues came up for in-depth discussion. The summer schedule of Kingfisher is also understood to have been discussed at on Wednesday’s meeting, with the airline believed to have informed the regulator that it would operate 40 planes out of its 64-strong fleet, implying curtailment of the number of flights to be operated by it.
In the winter schedule, which is in operation till March-end, DGCA withdrew 157 slots of Kingfisher that it was not operating, as 21 of its planes were grounded.
Earlier this month, Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal had met Bhushan after the airline was asked to give a time-bound plan on safety issues, on how it would restore its flight schedules, curtailed since November, and proposals for recapitalisation.
