India's Kingfisher urges pilots not to strike

The chief executive of India's cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines has met pilots and urged them not to strike over a delay in paying salaries, the airline said on Sunday. "Sanjay Aggarwal met a group of pilots and appealed to them not to stay away from flying duties which would potentially affect the operating schedule," Kingfisher spokesman Prakash Mirpuri said in a statement. Kingfisher did not say how many pilots had threatened to stop work. At least 60 pilots have already left the airline to work with rivals, the Press Trust of India agency has previously reported. The airline also denied media reports that it had warned pilots of a probable closure of operations. Kingfisher's chairman, flamboyant billionaire Vijay Mallya, has said that he is seeking fresh capital to avert collapse. The loss-making airline owes suppliers, lenders and staff millions of dollars and has scrapped scores of scheduled flights with only 28 of its fleet of 64 aircraft remaining in operation. It has been unable to make payments as its bank accounts have been frozen by the federal revenue and tax authorities in recent weeks, due to non-payment of taxes. "We are trying our very best to co-operate with the tax authorities and get our accounts unfrozen at the earliest so that normalcy could be restored, employee salaries paid and further aircraft recoveries started," the airline said on Sunday. Kingfisher is hoping for a crucial injection of funds from its lenders -- a consortium of over a dozen state and private banks -- who have so far refused to lend more until the airline produces a robust business plan. The airline's net loss widened sharply to 4.44 billion rupees ($88 million) in the three months to December from a loss of 2.54 billion rupees a year earlier while its debt totals at least $1.3 billion.