Will Staff Protest Bring King of Good Times to His Knees?

Bangalore: Officially, the curtains have been drawn. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA finally suspended its license on October 20^th 2012.The DGCA had earlier issued a show cause notice to the airline asking why their license need not be cancelled and was expecting the troubled carrier to submit a feasible action plan to get its fleet off the ground . The company failed to submit any concrete financial plans for resuming services. Ticket issuing activities have now ceased.

Its employees have been on strike since October 1^st protesting against non-payment of salaries for as long as 7 months. An employee’s wife committed suicide on October 4^th citing financial difficulties due to non-payment of salary in her suicide note.The Company  declared a lock out on October 12^th.

The debt ridden carrier owes more than 7000 crore in principal alone to  more than 17 lenders .The SBI has the highest exposure, to the tune of 1,580 crores. IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, UBI, Corporation Bank, to name a few too have sunk substantial funds into the airline.

The beleaguered airline has been negotiating with its staff off and again, with its CEO holding a special meeting with the employees and appealing for the strike to end but without the overdue  payment settlement being offered, it is highly unlikely that the impasse would end.