Kingfisher crisis: Staff to be paid Salaries by April 10

The cash-strapped Kingfisher Airline owner Vijay Mallya has assured his employees to pay their salaries by April 10 while expressing his concern on delayed salaries.

While responding to a letter written by Kingfisher staff on March 29, Mallya wrote, ""I am pleased to advise you that the formalities of un-freezing our bank accounts was completed yesterday following our payment of Rs.44 crores to the Income Tax and Rs.20 crores to the Service Tax authorities before March 31".

Mallya said that the junior staff will be paid before Easter and all the engineers will be paid on April 9 and 10.

Meanwhile, the Kingfisher employees have urged the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team to skip the IPL so that they will get their salaries soon.

The private airline on Monday has cancelled four flights operations three from Delhi and one from Chennai a day after the pilots set a deadline before Mallya to respond to their letter on delayed salaries.

The employees had also threatened to go on strike if Mallya fails to respond to their letter on Monday. They claimed that they have not been paid salaries for the last four months.

The airline is struggling to pay a debt of Rs.7,057.08 crore. It is also facing a loss of Rs.444.27 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2011, from Rs.253.69 crore in the October-December quarter in the last fiscal.