Captain off Deccan owners’ list

Mumbai: Captain G.R. Gopinath — the man who pioneered the concept of a low cost airline in India — will no longer figure on the list of promoters of Deccan Aviation, the airline he founded in 2003.
Gopinath, K.J. Samuel and Vishnu Singh Rawal submitted letters to Deccan Aviation requesting that they be “declassified from the promoters’ category”.
Last year, Gopinath sold a 26 per cent stake in the low cost airline to a Vijay Mallya-owned entity called Kingfisher Radio. Later, Mallya acquired another 20 per cent through an open offer.
Mallya has since raised his stake to 49 per cent in the airline through market purchases this year.
The latest development signals that Gopinath and Mallya have been unable to sort out their differences over the way the loss-making airline should be run.
Gopinath could not be contacted to explain why he had decided to opt out of the promoters’ category.
Kingfisher Airlines plans to start overseas operations under Deccan’s licence from August when the latter completes five years of domestic operations to qualify to fly abroad.
Gopinath, who has always been passionate to preserve his low cost brand even after the merger, recently said that he would invest about Rs 800 crore in a new cargo airline and logistics firm, Deccan Cargo.
19/04/08 The Telegraph

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Categories: Deccan Apr 2008, Kingfisher Apr 2008