Kingfisher ordered to explain cancelled flights

India's cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines said Monday it would appear before the aviation regulator to explain scores of cancelled flights over recent days, as the carrier's problems mounted. Debt-laden Kingfisher cancelled 16 flights on Monday from Mumbai and several more from New Delhi and elsewhere, on top of scrapping more than 30 flights the previous day. The airline said it was forced to curtail its services after tax authorities froze its bank accounts reportedly due to its inability to clear its unpaid service taxes. "This has severely affected our ability to make operational payments, leading to the current curtailment," Kingfisher said in a statement on Monday. "We are appealing to them to see reason that inconvenience to the travelling public is not in anybody's interest and are in talks to get (bank accounts) unfrozen." Kingfisher added that its chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal had been summoned for a meeting with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Tuesday. "We will appear before the DGCA tomorrow and submit all details they want and also a plan to restore the full schedule," the airline's statement said. Kingfisher, which announced a third quarter loss of $88 million last week, has been beset with difficulties caused by soaring fuel costs and high local sales taxes, as well as a domestic price war. At the weekend, the airline blamed some of the disruptions -- the second batch since November -- on bird strikes. It said a full daily schedule of 240 flights should return to operation over this week. Flight cancellations have hit passenger confidence hard and left stranded travellers fuming. "At the airport I was told my flight is delayed and there is no clue when it will fly," private bank executive Amit Vij told AFP at Mumbai airport as he tried to return to the northern city Chandigarh. "They did not call, SMS or email me in advance. Even the helplines are not responding." But the airline says it is re-booking passengers on rival carriers and also offering full refunds. The Bangalore-based Kingfisher, owned by brewing magnate Vijay Mallya, has never posted a net profit since it started operating in 2005. It has seen its passenger market share slump to 12 percent in recent months, with its ranking on the list of India's largest airlines falling from second to fifth. India's civil aviation minister Ajit Singh reiterated on Monday that private firms such as Kingfisher could not expect any aid package. "The government is not going to ask banks to bail out any private airline, or any private industry for that matter," Singh told the NDTV news channel. India's airline industry -- once a symbol of the country's economic progress -- is now plagued by high fuel prices, fierce competition, price wars and inadequate airport infrastructure, with Kingfisher one of the worst-hit firms. The company's shares closed Friday at 26.6 rupees, down 39 percent from a year earlier. Markets were closed Monday due to a holiday. A quarter of Kingfisher is owned by local banks and some have refused to lend the company more cash unless fresh capital is raised. Questions about the firm's financial viability grew after it axed its low-cost Kingfisher Red service to concentrate on its full-fare business in September. "Kingfisher will soon have to consider limiting operations to bleed less, besides selling and leasing back some aircraft to lower debt," said a Mumbai-based aviation analyst on condition of anonymity. Kingfisher has a 64 aircraft fleet, flying to 46 destinations in India and eight overseas.