Kingfisher's new flight schedule to be approved soon: DGCA

The new flight schedule of troubled Kingfisher Airlines, which has significantly scaled down its operations, is being vetted by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and private airport operators and is likely to get the nod of the aviation regulator DGCA soon.

"The flight schedule is being discussed by the AAI. The private (airport) operators are also examining it. Once they finalise it, it will come to us for approval. Hopefully, things will be clear by tomorrow," DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan said in Delhi.

In any case, Kingfisher has started operating in accordance with this schedule, he said.

As per the new schedule, the airline is operating less than half the number of flights than it had planned in October last year for this winter season.

The cash-strapped carrier had in November sought permission to fly 418 daily flights on a fleet of 64 aircraft during the October-March winter schedule. But shortly thereafter, it was operating only 269 flights on grounds of financial problems.

The number of flights has now fallen to about 170, which it would operate by 28 planes -- 13 Airbus A-320s, four Airbus A-330s and 11 turbo-prop ATRs.

As per this truncated schedule, the airline would not operate direct flights to some major cities and several Tier-II cities now on. Among the cities to there would not be any direct flights include Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Nagpur and even Hyderabad.

Kingfisher flyers who wish to travel to such destinations would have to be routed through other cities like its base in Mumbai or Bangalore or Delhi.