Concerned over the sudden cancellations and passenger inconvenience, DGCA had summoned the airline's CEO and top officials to appear before them to explain the large-scale disruptions in the operations and the reasons

New Delhi: Beleaguered Kingfisher Airline's top brass Tuesday briefed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) about their plans to end the large-scale disruptions of flights and their financial troubles even as over 30 flights of the carrier were cancelled Tuesday, reports PTI.

Before going into the meeting with the chief of DGCA EK Bharat Bhushan, Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal said, "We will answer whatever the regulator asks."

Concerned over the sudden cancellations and passenger inconvenience, DGCA had summoned the airline's CEO and top officials to appear before them to explain the large-scale disruptions in the operations and the reasons.

Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh told reporters, "We have to hear out Kingfisher. We don't know what their plans are, how they are going to restore normal schedule. Then there are safety issues which they have to answer".

He also said that in any industry closure of one unit creates trouble for the entire industry and added that steps have to be taken to see that Kingfisher restores its flight schedule and passengers are not inconvenienced.

The carrier cancelled more flights on Tuesday. While 13 flights were cancelled from Mumbai, eight were cancelled from Kolkata and four from Delhi leaving many passengers stranded.

The major air route of Mumbai-Delhi was the worst-hit with maximum cancellations and clubbing of flights.

The airline faced fresh problems on Monday with 34 pilots quitting and a large number of staff being put on notice.

The resignation of the pilots has taken the total number of those who have quit to about 80 since last October, industry sources said.

Kingfisher has been suffering from a severe cash crunch that has culminated into the income tax authorities freezing its bank accounts last week on grounds of non-payment of tax dues.

The carrier had Monday cancelled 30 flights including those to Bangkok, Singapore, Kathmandu and Dhaka, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at various airports across the country.

Kingfisher Airlines promoter Vijay Mallya has said he will not shut down the private carrier which struggled to stay afloat after further large-scale flight disruptions and resignation of pilots. "Closing down is not an option," he said.

Mr Mallya had lobbied hard with the government on both these issues. He claimed that the entire issue of bailout was of "media making". Asked about sudden disruption in Kingfisher flights, the UB Group chief said the bank accounts of the airline were frozen "very suddenly" by the income tax authorities over non-payment of tax dues.

Auditors of Kingfisher Airlines, which posted a net loss of Rs444.26 crore for the third quarter of this fiscal, have once again raised concerns over its ability to stay afloat.