After being hauled up by the DGCA for taking short cuts on flight safety,Kingfisher Airlines told the air safety regulator that it will be able to resume full operations by 2012-end,said highly-placed sources. In a presentation to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today,the airlines top management said grounded aircraft will be pressed into service by June 2012 in a phased manner. The cash-strapped airline,which curtailed its 2011-12 winter schedule by over 40 per cent,said it would operate the summer schedule with 40 aircraft translating into nearly 240 flights almost half the size of its regular operations. The airline said that while 60 per cent salary backlog has been cleared,the remaining would be disbursed by January 15. DGCA,in its report on financial surveillance of airlines,had questioned Kingfisher Airlines safety standards. It said the airline was struggling to meet safety norms due to financial constrains. A reasonable case exists for withdrawal of their air operator permit (AOP) as their financial stress is likely to impinge on safety, the report quoted DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan. The regulator had sought a detailed recovery plan along with firm timelines from the airline. In its report,the audit team had found that nearly one-third or 20 out of total 64 aircraft belonging to the airline were grounded due to want of spares,engines,components,etc. Nearly 24 pilots had left the airline and salaries remained unpaid. The airline did not have spares for its ATR aircraft and resorted to cannibalisation of parts. Earlier,Mallya said on a micro-blogging site,that the airline is 1,000 per cent safe. Senior Kingfisher executives told The Indian Express that while financial concerns may exist,there is no case for any safety concerns. No aircraft flying at present is substandard or unsafe, said an airline executive. DGCA had also raised safety concerns over state-owned,no-frills international carrier Air India Express. The regulator said the carrier faced severe shortage of pilots and trainers,and the airline was logging flight duty hours manually. DGCA findings Kingfisher : 20 aircraft grounded. Engine shortage for Airbus and ATR. Exodus of pilots and backlog of unpaid salaries Jet Airways: Backlog in training of pilots,cabin crew. No safety audit of international stations for two years Go Air: Captains key position in company remain vacant JetLite: Acute shortage of pilots,cabin crew. Training backlog. Lacks software to monitor Blackbox SpiceJet: No qualified Boeing instructor IndiGo: Did not report incidents,categorised them as mere snags. Airline crew scheduling system needs review. Shortage of training instructors Air India Express: Shortage of pilots,check-pilots,instructors,examiners and cabin crew. Manual logging of work hours by pilots and crew
