Ailing Kingfisher Airlines has cancelled several fights and stopped its operations in Kolkata, said reports, even as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday started a probe into the cancellations.

The cash strapped airline has been quoted saying in a statement that the "flight disruptions were owing to certain unexpected incidents like bird hits which rendered its aircraft out of service".

The third largest airline company of India said it is curtailing operations over next four days.

The cancellations caused immense hardship for passengers booked on the flights.

At least 16 flights were cancelled from Mumbai on Sunday, reports said.

Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal, however, said they are not pulling out from any base and would back in service.

"The speculative queries that we are reducing our operating schedule from 240 flights a day are ill-founded as we will operate the full schedule on our booking system within the next 4 days," Aggarwal was quoted.