Paramount grounded for good?

Chennai: All flights operated by the Chennai-based Paramount Airways were cancelled on Monday. While a Paramount spokesperson said that their two aircraft were under maintenance and that flight operations would resume on Wednesday, airport sources attributed it to the suspension of the scheduled-airline permit by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Also, the airline’s domestic schedule has been inactivated on the DGCA website.
According to airport authorities, Paramount had been operating its services with just one Embraer aircraft VT-PAC to destinations like Madurai, Coimbatore and Trivandrum for quite some time after three of its other aircraft were de-registered.
When Express spoke to the airline’s managing director M Thiagarajan on Sunday, he said: “We will acquire six more aircraft within the next two months. Two Embraers and four Airbus will be part of the fleet soon. Earlier, we made a mistake of being over-dependent on one leasing company.” The airline had a feud with the GE Commercial Aviation Services following which three of its aircraft were deregistered.
Employees of Paramount said that that the company was sitting on salaries of employees, particularly that of the only Indian captain, who resigned on March 22. Salaries of co-pilots had been slashed by 50 per cent following which six of them quit, they said and added that even the Columbian pilots were leaving.
20/04/10 Mamta Todi/Express Buzz

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Paramount Airways Apr 2010