Update as of 10 Nov 2011: It turns out that Kingfisher is cancelling upto 50 flights a day instead of the earlier announced 31. The DGCA has issued a notice to the airline to clarify why it is cancelling flights and what is it doing to take care of the passengers stranded because of its acts. This should be some justice to the flyers booked on those Kingfisher flights which got cancelled.

—-

Gulp! Hate to bring the bad news but I was just going through my Twitter timeline for @Livefromalounge where I spotted a couple of rants about Kingfisher Airlines. It is well-known that the airline is cancelling flights left-right-center with a brutal axe that only the ‘Guests’ know about.

The problem is, they don’t seem to care.  An airline is a means to an end for many, and Kingfisher is no different. No philosophical stance here. Your job, is to bring people from point A to B. What you are doing is not fulfilling your responsibilities towards people.

You could turn up at the airport and hear about your flight’s cancellation. Or you could hear about it right before in email. But Kingfisher is washing its hands away from any responsibility to take care of you. Here are a bunch of stories that tell all.

• Dainik Bhasker: Mumbai – Indore Cancelled
• Dainik Bhasker: Indore Mumbai Cancelled because there was no pilot. 

And here is a first hand incident I read on Facebook today. The story of a guest who bought a revenue ticket and got contempt from Kingfisher because of that, in an Open Letter to Kingfisher.

Now, Kingfisher is out with an announcement that they will be cancelling 31 flights everyday till 19th November 2011. This includes 27 domestic flights (between metro stations) and 4 international flights every day (Bangkok, mostly). While this could be for a variety of reasons and I won’t want to speculate here, I’d advise you to double/triple check on your travel plans if you are booked with KFA, and make sure you are rescheduled if you are on one of the flights that got nixed. You should try going to their office, because seems like phones don’t work in their place so you get a 30 min hold time at min.