Kingfisher declares lockout

Neelam Mathews

Oct 1, 2012

A press release from Kingfisher Airlines released late evening says "following a series of protracted and unabated incidents of violence, criminal intimidation, assault, wrongful restraint and other illegal acts ........ by a small section of recalcitrant employees,which were all unnecessary and unprovoked, the management has been forced to declare a partial lock-out at the airline, effective immediately.

FYI- The small section are the guys that run the aircraft who haven't been paid for seven months- many whose kids have been pulled out of school because they can't pay their fees!

Flight operations will be suspended upto October 4, says Kingfisher.Tickets on the website are available from Oct 5. But nobody knows how long the temporary lockout might actually last.

All this comes in the background of Sid Mallya making desperate tweets for all to vote him as the GQ Digital Man of the Year and Mr Vijay Mallya tweeting-"The media are having a great time slamming me. Let them continue their wild and inaccurate speculation. I will prove them wrong."

For his sake and that of India's aviation, we hope he can live up to his word.