Kingfisher Airlines, which has been grounded since September 29, on Wednesday said it will have to extend the October 20 deadline it had set for itself to resume operations, as a meeting with the striking employees on Wednesday failed to resolve the deadlock.

On October 10, the airline had said it would resume operations from October 20. Airline chief executive Sanjay Agarwal told this reporters after a meeting with the employee representatives in Mumbai on Wednesday evening.

On the outcome on the issue of salary, which has not been paid for the past seven months and on which employees have been striking since the past three weeks, he did not offer a direct answer, but just said that discussions are going on in the right direction and they will be meeting soon again.